Deep-sea Fish ‘Plundered’ Says WWF
Guess what happens when you let regional authorities police international fishing? That’s right, the international waters get ignored and commercial fishers decimate coral reefs and deep-sea fish stocks.
The World Wildlife Federation recently released a report that took governments and commercial operations to task for failing to regulate deep-sea fishing. They use the word “plundered” to describe open-water fisheries. And when any government fails to think about sustainability, we all lose: It’s not like the tuna and orange roughy know which countries would give them more protection. And these industrial operations destroy coral reefs, the oceanic equivalent of tropical rain forests. Marine experts wave their hands in vain as they try to educate ravenous seafood lovers about the role coral reefs play in the ocean’s ecosystem.
At some point, we’ll figure out that fish stocks can dwindle and collapse. Unfortunately, that will only happen when seafood disappears from our plates. By then, it will be too late. Too bad commercial fisheries only focus on short-term profits instead of their business’s long-term prospects. Let’s hear it for unchecked capitalism, shall we?
“Illegal fishing ‘by highly mobile fleets under the control of multinational companies’ was identified as one of the worst threats to marine life,” says the BBC’s summary of the WWF report.
