The World Bank’s latest report discussing foreign fishing services (FFA) worldwide is a must-read for large commercial fisheries. It serves as a reminder of the impact of commercial fishing not just on fish stocks, but also on the dinner plates of people in other nations, particularly developing countries who need to share those resources.
The report presents its case in dry, academic language. From its executive summary: “This report presents an analytic review of economic and legal principles supported by empirical casework to elucidate actual and potential cost and benefit flows associated with FFAs.”
Despite that introduction, it’s worth it to keep reading. The report includes a variety of case studies from regions worldwide ranging from New Zealand to Chinese distant water fishing to fisheries in Alaska in the northern Pacific to Morocco.
The report even makes waves by taking a shot at the established United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“A key question concerns the (UNCLOS) so-called surplus principle: If the coastal state has surplus fish resources, is it obliged to grant access to other states, including distant water fishing states, albeit subject to conditions?” the report’s authors wrote. “This report concludes that there is no such requirement.”
That suggests an agenda of kicking larger fisheries out of the local waters of a coastal state, which certainly falls in line with ongoing measures by the European Union to force other countries to stop exploiting stocks in sensitive areas such as off the coast of western Africa.
That said, the report is not presenting a one-sided case for reductions in commercial fishing. Many of the case studies highlight how arrangements between smaller nations and larger foreign fisheries can benefit both the developing nations and the foreign fishing vessels, if the agreements are forged properly. If there is an agenda here, it is to promote this goal of maximizing profit while minimizing a negative impact on indigenous people.
In other words, there’s no reason why larger nations or fisheries shouldn’t fish in foreign waters, as long as they aren’t taking from artisanal fishermen who are trying to feed a village rather than turn a profit. For that matter, if said artisanal fishermen are looking to expand their skills and/or equipment to someday fish more efficiently in their own waters, they shouldn’t be held back by a foreign company or nation that is so well-established it makes such progress by the coastal nation impossible.
The report’s conclusions and calls for action seem to support the idea that nations can work together, so everyone wins. That may seem like a pie-in-the-sky ideal, but the World Bank takes it seriously. Just last year, the bank promoted another report, this time talking about Fishery Improvement Projects. That report came after a roundtable discussion among a number of academics and NGOs, but among the group’s members were Henry Demone, president of High Liner Foods, and Thirapong Chansiri, president of Thai Union Foods. The presence of two leading voices in the global seafood industry shows that the industry takes the issue seriously too.
Achieving this “Holy Grail” is a tricky balance, but reading the latest World Bank report and following its conclusions might get us all a little closer to that goal.
