Why are our current fishing practices unsustainable?
Some time back, I attended a conference in the Andaman Islands held for grantees from The Rufford Foundation to discuss their ideas and concerns about island and marine ecosystems. This was the first conference I attended on this topic since I joined the Foundation for Ecological Research Advocacy and Learning, the organisation that organised this conference.
During the conference, researchers presented their work on sharks, rays, sea snakes and a wide variety of other organisms. But, the recurring theme in most of these projects was a concern about how modern fishing practices are impacting life underwater. Through this article, I’d like to highlight some of the broad concerns that were brought up then about the fishing industry.
The transition from sustenance to commercial fishing
Traditionally, on the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and on the Lakshadweep archipelago, people fished for their own consumption. The Nicobarese, for instance, used traditional implements such as the traps, spears, seeds considered toxic to fish, nets and lines to catch fish. These traditional methods were highly selective and targeted only specific species of a desired size.
In contrast, present-day, large-scale commercial fishers use long-lines which is a main horizontal line to which vertical wires with baited hooks are attached, trawlers wherein a long bag-shaped net is towed behind a boat, and seines nets which operate as a net that hangs vertically in the water, with the help of floats and weights, which is dragged in a large circular motion to trap fish, among other methods that indiscriminately catch fish of various species and sizes.
Impact of international demand on local landings
The export market had many benefits for the economy of the islands, like providing employment and the development of infrastructure by the government. However, importers’ choice of fish did not always coincide with what was traditionally caught in these islands.
One example of international demand was the desire for groupers, specifically the leopard coral grouper, that arose from south-east Asian countries, where it is considered a sign of prosperity to eat a red fish. Groupers are top predators of coral reefs and are slow-growing and late-maturing fish, so it would be hard for their populations to recover if they were overexploited.
Before the development of the export market, groupers were not caught in large numbers, but as they now fetched a higher price these fish have become the prized catch. Furthermore, demand for these species has also increased in the domestic market.
Increase in bycatch
Bottom trawlers, that tow nets along the ocean floor, such as those used to catch shrimp, have the highest rates of bycatch and cause the most damage to marine ecosystems. A study published in 2017, showed that in the Andaman islands about 75% of the total catch of bottom trawlers were discarded. By- catch commonly includes juvenile fish, sea turtles, and snakes, and other threatened species.
Traditionally bycatch would be thrown overboard. But due to the declining catch of target species and the rising cost of fishing, fishermen have begun to sell bycatch as manure or as fishmeal to the poultry and aquaculture industries to maintain their income levels. So instead of moving to new areas to fish, fishermen still fish in the same areas even after the disappearance of the target species.
Monitoring and conservation
There are numerous papers by researchers and accounts by fishermen that indicate that these large-scale fishing practices are unsustainable and that populations of fish are declining. One such article that I came across was on shark fishers from Kanyakumari that had to travel to Oman and Mauritius to catch sharks.
Regulations in the fishing industry must be based on data and inputs from researchers and fisherfolk and should be efficiently implemented. Various state governments have drafted policies and regulations on the size of fish that can be caught, the method of catching fish, and even implemented complete bans during the monsoon months when fish breed. However, these laws have not translated into any visible changes as fishermen blatantly ignore regulations and continue to fish outside designated areas, often using illegal methods. Further pressurising marine life, the central government has, in its last few union budgets, allocated a vast amount of resources towards increasing the scale of fisheries.
Encouraging sustainable fishing practices
Many researchers have tried to convey their finding to fishermen through awareness programmes about endangered species, sustainable fishing practices and population trends. Meanwhile initiatives like “In Season Fish” and “Know Your Fish” aim to educate consumers about what fish to eat, and what to avoid in a particular month.
The onus, therefore, falls not only on governments or fishermen alone but also on people who consume fish to alter their consumption patterns to encourage sustainable fishing practices.
References:
Aaron Savio Lobo, Andrew Balmford, Rohan Arthur and Andrea Manica (2010) Commercializing bycatch can push a fishery beyond economic extinction. Conservation Letters. A journal of the Society for Conservation Biology 3 (4), p 277–285.
Lawrence TN, Bhalla RS (2018) Spatially explicit action research for coastal fisheries manage- ment. PLoS ONE 13(7): e0199841.
Liju Thomas, S. Venu, Bitopan Malakar, Rahul Nagesh, Ganesh Basumatary (2017)
An assessment on the impact of bottom trawling to the demersal fisheries and benthic diversity of Andaman Islands, India. Regional Studies in Marine Science 10, p 20–26.
T. Ravikumara, Nagesh Ram, P. Krishnan, R. Kiruba Sankar, V.Sachithanandam, S. Dam Roy (2016). Subsistence fishing methods of Nicobari tribes using traditional knowledge. Journal of Marine and Island Cultures 5(1), p 79–87.
Aaron Savio Lobo. Managing fisheries in an ocean of bycatch. (Position paper).
Bhanu Sridharan — Can a village specialised in shark fishing have lessons for India’s fisheries? (popular article).
