Fishery closures and the subsequent rebuilding of stocks could lead to long-term economic gains for the majority of Canadian fisheries, a study by the University of British Columbia has found.
The study, published in September’s issue of Ocean & Coastal Management, found that the most optimistic scenario resulted in an 11-fold economic gain, while the least optimistic scenario with a five-fold economic gain – although the fishery closure period studied could be decades-long. The study found that the gains would continue to climb after 50 and 100 years.
“If you look at societal, national, or provincial problems, the struggle between the short-term and the long-term is huge. Most of us think of today, today, today,” Rashid Sumaila, one of the study’s co-authors and a University of British Columbia bioeconomics professor, said in an interview. “We shouldn’t discount the fish of our grandchildren.”
Sumaila said the First Nations way of thinking about sustainability helped to inspire the study.
Six species were considered for the study: Atlantic and Pacific herring, Atlantic cod, Atlantic redfish, Vancouver Island Chinook salmon, and Vancouver Island yelloweye rockfish. All of the fisheries are considered to be in decline, as are at least 25 percent of Canada’s major fisheries.
There has been significant opposition to catch limits or other restrictions due to the negative short-term economic effects. The study found that in five of the six species, a complete closure of the fishery – as opposed to catch limits – resulted in higher long-term economic gains. The only species that did not show gains under any of the scenarios in the study was rockfish, due to its longer life-cycle than the other species in the study. Still, Sumaila acknowledged that if the fishery was “given enough time and patience,” rockfish might yield a positive economic benefit after a fishery closure as well.
“If you leave nature alone, nature will come back… except if you destroy it completely,” he said.
Photo courtesy of Gareth Janzen/Shutterstock
