Over the past one hundred years, the fishing industry has developed and expanded to serve increasing consumer demand. Advances in fishing technology enabled this growth by catching greater quantities of fish with lower cost and less labor required. The three most lucrative fishing methods (bottom trawling, mid-range trawling, and purse seining) effectively removed entire schools of fish in very little time. Certain methods, especially bottom trawling, killed surrounding plant and animal species by destroying their sea floor habitat (Gabriel, 2005, chap. 26). Increased bycatch (nontarget species caught by commercial fishermen) also accompanied the large-scale harvesting, eliminating many populations unintentionally caught with market fish (Merriam-Webster, 2006-2007). In general, our goals in current fishing technology advancement are to decrease harmful effects on the environment while also increasing selectivity in both species and size of fish harvested. These ends focus on the restoration of fish habitats and the protection of threatened or endangered species. The means to accomplish these goals must include action from many sides at once. Governments must implement and enforce regulations to save declining fisheries. At the same time, manufacturers must introduce sustainable fishing technologies into the global market. As the new machinery becomes more common, its prices will drop and its acceptance will increase.
Figure 1. Taken from Grinning Planet.
[LINK TO SHORT TERM IMPROVEMENT]
[LINK TO LONG TERM REGULATION]
[LINK TO GPS TRACKING UNITS]
A combination of new technologies makes selectivity and habitat conservation possible, but conversion to these new methods will be costly and difficult. To ease the transition to more expensive equipment, we propose that subsidies be redirected to support sustainable fishing. Along these economic lines, tax deductions will also encourage environmentally-friendly methods. The technologies themselves include digital imaging for catch specificity, line tension sensors to indicate net content, and electronic ticklers with depth sensors for trawl nets. These and other steps will allow fisherman, even in large-scale commercial corporations, to catch fish of proper size and species without damaging the precious ocean environment. A shift of the magnitude necessary to restore the fisheries will take time and commitment from across the globe. Honed regulations from supportive governments can encourage sustainable technologies to restore declining fisheries and unify the fishing community worldwide.
Improvement in Fishing Technology (Short Term) [CHILD PAGE 1]
General Goals
General goals of the plan include decreasing the harmful effects of fishing technology on the environment and increasing the selectivity of fish caught both by species and size, to the purpose of drastically reducing bycatch. Improving technology and fishing equipment is really only a short term solution to global fisheries problems. Long term solutions will come from intelligent regulations and worldwide cooperation to use our resources wisely.
Technology Suggestions
Step 1:
Step 1 would include the use of methods that are more environmentally friendly, such as hand lining or trapping rather than bottom trawling, since trawls stir up sediment (turbidity is harmful to many fish species as well as bivalves), destroy fish habitat, and destroy plants and animals that live along the bottom, whereas hand lining and other more environmentally friendly methods do not contact the bottom and thus do not harm the nonliving environment and are very selective with little bycatch.
Hook and line, however, still has a small problem with bycatch. The hooks are baited but sometimes fish other than the desired catch will eat the bait. Fishermen sometimes kill the fish and throw them back in so they will not continue to eat their bait. As an alternative, we suggest keeping onboard the boat an aerated tank that the bycatch fish can be put into. At the end of the day when the fishermen are done with their catching, they can release the fish safely back into the ocean.
Also, rather than trawling or fishing for a set number of hours and pulling up the nets to see what and how much has been caught, putting sensors on nets that measure tension or width of the net or other factors can give fishermen an estimation of the amount of fish in the nets before they pull the nets up. This way, the quota allowance will not be exceeded resulting in all of the fish over the quota pound limit being thrown back dead into the ocean.
Putting escape vents in commercial nets would allow the escape of large sea mammals that become trapped inside. Step 1 would also require that nets are manufactured with a biodegradable release mechanism which is often as simple as a long slit in the nylon webbing which is then sealed with cotton thread that degrades away. Traps would also have this time release mechanism that would open and allow the fish inside to escape in the event that the trap is not picked up by the fishermen or blown away by a storm. This provision eliminates the self-perpetuating cycle of self-baiting "ghost traps."
Requiring that nets be manufactured with square mesh sections instead of diamond mesh would make net size regulations more effective because square mesh does not close when towed and thus small fish can get through the mesh. Examples of these bycatch reduction devices include nets with radial escape sections or square mesh windows that allow fish to escape shrimp trawls.
Step 2:
Step 2 would include adding sensors along the bottom of trawling nets that keep the net a certain fixed height above the ground to prevent damaging the sea floor.
Using electrified ticklers to scare fish into the nets rather than the current chains which scrape the sea floor to scare fish into the nets, would mitigate the environmental impact of trawling.
Implementing sonar and other tracking devices to determine size (and from that age if possible) and species before nets are put into the water would limit the amount of bycatch of unwanted species or fish that are too small.
Implementing devices to sort fish before catching based on instinctual defensive responses or other means such as electrofishing which uses certain frequencies which attract and even paralyze if desired fish of a certain size and repel others away in order to lower bycatch.
Since step 2 is much more technologically advanced and likely to be more expensive, these measures would be implemented later when more research has been done and these technologies can be more cheaply and this wide spread manufactured.
Future Steps:
A future idea would be to implement GPS tags in nets and other fishing gear, which would emit a unique signal that can be tracked by an automated server. Ships would also have a unique GPS tag that can be matched together with their equipment; boats that don't pass inspection (i.e. use the right equipment in the right areas such as no trawling areas) would be red flagged by the automated system, which then eliminates the need for human operators and makes the enforcement aspect more efficient. This can also track ships that fish in no-take closed areas. In order to track the number of hours a ship's equipment is in the water, a speed coach propeller, or other mobile equipment which spin as water passes, could be put on nets and track the speed and time for which the equipment is pulled. Hours in the water could also be tracked by a resistance meter that can sense when it is in water because the resistance of the water is much less than of air so as the meter dries, resulting in a drop in resistance reading.
Implementing the Steps:
Fishermen who choose to convert to sustainable fishing technology would receive subsidies with the goal of making Step 1 sustainable technology comparable to or cheaper than unsustainable fishing technology.
The time frame must be large enough to allow fishermen to replace their equipment whenever is most convenient for them (i.e. when they would naturally need to replace it), but small enough to leave very little time for inaction and to encourage countries to be proactive in their conversions. An extension can be added if it is needed on a case by case basis in order to meet the deadline.
Subsidies for Step 2 technology would be implemented before the Step 1 phase is fully complete so fisherman can choose to go straight to Step 2 and skip Step 1, if they can do so. Step 2 would continue past the end of the ITQ bonuses provided for Step 1 conversion. As sustainable fishing increases and unsustainable fishing decreases, subsidies would become largely unnecessary.
Local fishermen and small fishing companies would get larger per-net or equipment converted subsidies than large companies, who would receive a smaller subsidy based on a sliding scale. This is because large fishing companies would find it easier and have more capital available to convert to new technology than smaller groups of fishermen. However, due to this same capital, large fishing fleets might in fact be less likely to make the switch, so we propose that they also receive a tax break.
Regulation of Fishing Technology (Long Term) [CHILD PAGE 2]
The most effective means of managing ocean fisheries long-term will be regulations. Ideally, regulations would occur before fish are caught rather than after. For example, regulation should specify net drag speed and net mesh size rather than enforcing quotas, which only encourage fishermen to throw fish exceeding the weight limit away. Regulation would be most effective if the two are combined.
Bottom trawling should not be allowed in communities deeper than a certain depth because deep ocean habitats recover much more slowly whereas very shallow areas that are used to storms, and other factors which affect the bottom habitat, show little or no damage in the succeeding months after trawling has taken place. More research is needed in classifying sediment type according to depth or extensive underwater terrain mapping to show sediment composition so that areas that can be bottom trawled can be distinguished from those that cannot. Bottom trawling effects can be somewhat mitigated by these steps, but still harm the ocean environment and should therefore be phased out altogether as newer technology is implemented.
Regulation of where mobile gear (trawls and other similar fishing methods) and non-mobile gear (such as lines or traps) can be used in conjunction with the mapping of underwater terrain would also greatly limit the damage to the sea floor. Mobile gears catch greater volumes of fish, but can be much less selective than non-mobile gear. However, mobile gear is much more cost effective since more fish can be caught in less time with less effort.
For mobile gear, we should regulate at what speed nets can be dragged so as to maximize the benefit of the increased mesh size. At high speeds, fish that would normally be able to escape from the netting are trapped by the larger fish that are pressed against the end of the net. Setting a minimum mesh size that nets cannot exceed would also decrease the bycatch, although more research is needed to determine the minimum size for the various species being fished.
GPS Tracking Units for Vessel Management [CHILD PAGE 3]
One of the main issues regarding any laws or regulations governing the fisheries is enforcement. Requiring all fishing vessels to have a GPS tracking device on board will make the regulation of fishermen and fishing companies much simpler and more effective. A tracking device will give off a signal that can be recorded by geosynchronous satellites, so the exact position of the fishing vessel can be monitored by the regulating body. It will allow regulating bodies to know which fleets are in the water and whether or not they are within legal boundaries at any given time, thus ensuring that marine protected areas and time-area closures are not being fished. Speeds of less than three knots usually indicates that the vessel is fishing, and patterns in global positioning data can also help managers determine what type of fishing strategy the vessel is using (Marshall et al, 1998).
Such a device is also capable of receiving signals via satellite. This will be essential for alerting vessels in danger and allowing fishing boats to know the whereabouts of other fishing boats in the area. We discussed earlier the need for a flexible management strategy that can be easily modified to accommodate changes in the ecosystem, and such management strategies might include a system of time and area closures. A tracking system will allow fishermen to determine their exact position and how close they are to the closed areas that are in effect that day. Additionally, the device can be programmed keep a tally on the amount of fish caught by that particular vessel and how much of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) has been caught.
Relevant products are already on the market. Applied Satellite Technologies, Ltd., based in the United Kingdom, has also developed a line of such products under the brand Thrane & Thrane. These devices provide two-way communication and allow for the transfer of email and fax messages. Satellite communication providers include Inmarstat, Argos, and Iridium, which provide global coverage. The cost of transmission has fallen from over $0.15 to less than $0.05 since the advent of VMS, and a device that once cost $10,000 in 1988 now can be purchased for $1500 (Navigs s.a.r.l., 2005). As technologies become more widespread, the devices will become more affordable.
Vessel Monitoring Systems have proven to be feasible and practical. Nations are beginning to realize the benefits of such a system and have already taken steps towards implementing such a system. The United States and the United Kingdom both have some form of GPS tracking system used for the regulation of their waters. In 2000, the UK required a GPS system in every fishing vessel over 24 meters (AST, 2004). Three years ago they decided that fishing vessels 15 meters and longer would be required to have the GPS Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) installed, and signed a contract purchasing 750 VMS devices for fishing vessels. The devices are designed to be tamper proof in order to guarantee accurate information is transmitted. The devices provide the monitoring agency with the vessels speed, direction, position, course and destination. Allowing the regulatory agency to successfully and easily monitor and enforce oceanic law in the surrounding waters.
The United States as well has a system similar to Britain's tracking system. In New England, the North East Vessel Monitoring Program monitors fishing vessels, collecting not only position and velocity data but also information about the vessel's catch. The system requires the skipper of the fishing vessel to inform the central headquarters about his/her intent for that day. This includes providing course information, types species to be caught and anticipated catch size. The skipper must wait for the request to be approved before actually setting sail. The devices are required (except in special cases) to remain on in order to continuously report vessel location (NOAA, 2007).
The United States is currently seeking a Nation Wide Automatic Identification System (NAIS). Northrop Grumman will compete for the U.S. Coast Guards NAIS proposal. The plan is to develop a tamper proof ID system that will "continually transmit and receive voiceless exchange of vessel data, including vessel identity, position, speed, course, destination and other data of critical interest for navigation safety, marine mobility and maritime security." (Staff Writers, 2007) This system will allow the Coast Guard to protect closed areas, regulate the number of active fishing vessels in a certain area, with the addition of other benefits such as increased national security and boater safety.
Other countries that currently have implemented a Vessel Monitoring System include Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, China, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Falklands Islands, Estonia, Iceland, Malta, Russia, and Spain. It is important to build off the success of existing Vessel Monitoring Systems and help fisheries in developed nations, especially those with open access fisheries, to implement the monitoring of ships in their waters. The United States and United Kingdom should use their current successes with their vessel monitoring systems to other countries as examples of the success and benefits of such a system. Both countries should also outline their future plans and modifications to the VMS in order to further convince nations to adopt this solution. Our ultimate goal would be to have every commercial fishery employ some form of GPS tracking on their ships. The technology is out there - it is up to the leaders of the world to take the initiative and implement the solution.
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