This article originally appeared in the UnderCurrent on November 10, 2021.
Three scientists from very different backgrounds have co-authored a press release urging delegates at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (or COP26) not to sideline the issues around overfishing.
Emma Cavan, research fellow at Imperial College, London; Erica Ferrer, a PhD candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego; and Rashid Sumaila, a University Killam professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, are united in stating that “healthy fisheries are a crucial and deliverable part of climate action”, they said.
Evidence that burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and is bad for the climate has been apparent now for decades, but the data and understanding of fish and fishing’s influence on the ocean’s capacity to store that carbon is less well known. Fortunately, this knowledge has been rapidly advancing in recent years, they said.
“We are members of a group of scientists working to understand how ending overfishing would improve ocean health, and in turn, contribute to improving the ocean’s ability to store carbon. The ocean may be the source of all life on our planet, but it is also on the frontlines of what the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, describes as ‘humanity’s war on nature’. In the case of the ocean, this war is fought in part with industrial fishing vessels, designed to track down and capture massive amounts of fish.
Continued overfishing will trigger irreversible changes to the ecological conditions under which humanity has evolved and thrived, they wrote.
“To navigate ourselves out of this mess, we must turn the political landscape that equipped and enabled this war into one which recognizes ocean biodiversity, and the preservation of healthy fish populations, as integral to climate and ecological ‘success’. In order to achieve this, countries must demobilize and redirect, retool and re-equip their fisheries; instead of racing to catch shrinking fish populations, we need to fish less, and in ways that respect marine food webs, while ending the obliteration of so-called ‘unwanted’ species, and supporting human livelihoods.”
At the same time, we must acknowledge and support the efforts of fishing operators striving to fish sustainably, and support small-scale fishers and coastal communities in becoming more resilient to climate change, they added. “Research shows that this way is possible, it absorbs more carbon, has lower carbon emissions, and is good for both people and profits.”
