Boris Worm, co-author of a controversial report that projects the collapse of all of the world's commercially fished stocks within 50 years, said there is still a chance for already fragile fisheries to rebound if certain measures are introduced.Only two decades ago, the idea of species collapse would have had Dr. Worm laughed off the podium right after the guy who said Men in Black was a documentary.
Not so any more, but many will likely scoff at the idea that entire species will disappear within the next half century if we continue not just current fishing practices but also our overall approach to the marine environment. You can find a summary of Worm's collaborative work with other scientists here and the complete paper, from the magazine Science, here.
This is not Worm's first foray into this research area . In 2003, he authored a paper with Dr. Ransom Myers on the decline of predatory fish species, including cod. They concluded, among other things, that "the global ocean has lost more than 90% of large predatory fishes."
The chart [right] demonstrates the rapid decline of biomass on the southern Grand Banks, but this is only one of
several areas showing a dramatic and rapid biomass depletion in the same relatively short space of time. [left]Undoubtedly some, predictable, voices will rush forward to blame the entire thing on the federal government and demand compensation for what has been done to "our" fishery. They will note Worm's comments - quoted in the Globe - about Iceland's handline fishery for cod and likely use that as a further argument against the supposedly evil federal government.
What these voices miss - aside from, in one case, complicity in destroying local cod stocks through overfishing - is that the changes required in local fishing practices go far beyond the transient issues of who owns a fish processing company in this province or how many fish processors can work for poverty wages, topped off with federal hand-outs.
The fish processing sector in Newfoundland and Labrador has long employed considerably more people than needed. That economic demand was one of several factors that contributed to the intense fishing pressure placed on stocks throughout the last half of the 20th century. That demand continued right up to the cod moratorium in 1992.
The demand for quota is no less driven by the pressure from fish harvesters in all sizes of vessels. The current fishing management system - evolved over 50 years - continues to press harvesters to harvest more, to increase pressure on new species such as shrimp, and generally to contribute to the drastic decline noted by Myers and Worm. The demand to keep all plants open, the constant cry for a food fishery - and a commercial fishery on a damaged stock like cod - are all indications that many in Newfoundland and Labrador simply have not grasped the magnitude of the problem nor the folly of their own efforts.
Neither the federal nor provincial governments alone or together decimated fish stocks. The current state of the fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador was driven by many factors. Fixing the problem will take a deliberate effort in which established interest will have to be put aside.
The answer does not lie in simply copying Iceland's hook and line fishery. Neither does it rest with developing a collective marketing effort: surely better advertising is a suggestion from people who truly have no grasp of the issue at hand. Nor does the answer lie in encouraging migrant labour for local fishplants. Such actions are simplistic.
Changes needed in the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery will be sweeping and touch every aspect of both current operations and our collective attitudes toward the industry. it will require leadership from politicians and others in the community with a clear-eyed view of both the problem and the solution - or at least the way to achieve a solution.
Sadly, there seems to be no one in Newfoundland and Labrador - neither in the government, the opposition, the union or among processors - who can provide that leadership. We may be in as desperate a spot as we were nearly a century ago when one man's ideas for reform were rejected across the board in the then-country of Newfoundland, only to adopted elsewhere with great success.
At least then, someone in Newfoundland and Labrador seemed to have a clue about what to do.