Walking down the frozen food aisle of the supermarket with all the packets of frozen fish and other sea foods, I give little thought to where all that seafood comes from.
Like most of us, I know the frozen cod no longer comes from Canada’s Grand Banks. Over-fishing destroyed the once vibrant industry.
But what about fish from other countries?
Just like in Canada decades ago, coastal fisherman in Africa are crying foul about the large factory ships from Europe and China that are scooping up the fish that remain in their waters.
In Somalia, some who lost their fishing livelihoods have retrained as pirates, taking to hijacking oil tankers and freighters (a story told in a recent Tom Hank’s film, Captain Phillips).
Others have joined tens of thousands of people migrating north looking for a way to get into Europe. But the oceans are immense, and these problems seem isolated and mostly far away—until last week that is, when a Vancouver Island fish farm announced that it had just lost seven million scallops, likely due to global warming. This problem has spread to the entire Northern Pacific region.
It’s one sign that the oceans, like the people who fish them, may be in real trouble—a sign that hits a bit closer to home
Others are taking note.
This past week, the great and the good gathered at the Ritz Carleton hotel on a beach in California for the second World Ocean Summit. The meeting was organized by National Geographic and The Economist, a highly influential British magazine. They were there to discuss “how economic development and ocean conservation can be reconciled.”
It’s an important topic, given the importance of sea food for food security, the value of the open ocean fishery (estimated at $10-$24 billion a year) and the growing realization of the importance of the oceans for the health of the earth’s ecosystem.
With the depletion of coastal fisheries, as The Guardian newspaper has pointed, the open ocean fisheries have become the new ‘wild west’ with no rules and no enforcement.
If we want to avoid the same challenges with the ocean itself, there will need to be increased international cooperation and a global perspective, just as with other serious global problems.
And like the other problems, some solutions for the ocean are beginning to be proposed.
Our former Prime Minister, Paul Martin, together with David Miliband, the former UK foreign affairs minister and 15 other world leaders, are members of The Global Ocean Commission. They are proposing the creation of an international open ocean police force, based not on thousands of police boats, but on satellite and drone surveillance and electronic sensors.
The costs appear manageable. Now it’s a matter of national leaders being willing to collaborate on solving the problem.
More information on this and other ideas for restoring the health of the oceans will become available when The Global Ocean Commission publishes its report in June.
It’s something I’m keeping a close eye on. I’ll let you know what they come up with.
