It could cost up to CAD 292 billion and take almost three decades, but University of British Columbia experts have a proposal to save the world’s fisheries.
In a study released Friday in the online journal of the Public Library of Science, a team of American and Canadian economists and ecologists led by UBC professor Rashid Sumaila called on governments worldwide to dramatically reduce subsidies to fisheries in a bid to stop unprofitable and unsustainable fishing.
Eventually, those cuts would result in more robust fish stocks and fisheries worth CAD 54 billion, a great improvement from the CAD 13 billion they lose each year, the study claims.
“There are too many boats going for the fish. A key component is reducing the number of boats and therefore the number of people fishing,” said Sumaila, director of the university’s fisheries economics research unit.
