The Spot Prawn Fishery The Spot Prawn Fishery - Basel Action ...

INTRODUCTION
The spot prawn fishery spans diverse habitats
and ecosystems. The scientific, management,
and cultural systems that have evolved with it are
equally diverse. The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status
Report seeks to accurately reflect the ecology and
management of this complex fishery. This information
allows identification of aspects of the
fishery that uphold the precautionary principles
of Ecosystem Health and Ecological Economics,
aspects that undermine these tenets and warn
of unsustainability, and aspects that require
further investigation.
Why the Spot Prawn?
Pressure on marine ecosystems grows each year
as seafood becomes a greater part of the American
diet. Although there is increasing awareness
of the various threats that undermine the viability
of marine ecosystems, existing laws and regulations
have largely failed to secure sustainable fisheries
or to protect the intimate connection between
the economy and the ecosystem evident in marinedependent
communities. The record of fisheries
management in the 20th century is dismal.
According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO), 11 of the world’s 15
most important fishing areas and 60% of commercially
significant fish species are in decline (FAO
1997, McGinn, A.P. 1998). According to an FAO
press release, 25% of the world’s marine fishery
stocks, including many individual species of fish,
are being overfished (Associated Press 2001).
Recently, the United States Department of
Commerce reported that the number of US fish
species in jeopardy continues to rise, and reached
a record 107 species in 2000 (Marine Fish Conservation
Network 2001). Commemorating the United
Nations’ Year of the Ocean (1998), more than 1,600
marine scientists, oceanographers, and fishery
biologists from around the world issued a joint
statement, entitled “Troubled Waters,” alerting
the international community to the global marine
crisis and the forces driving it. These included
pollution, habitat degradation, and wasteful and
destructive fishing practices (MCBI 1998).
The problems facing the oceans are clear. As fishery
after fishery collapses, it is imperative that we
ask “Why?” and “What could have been done differently?”
Marine sustainability requires true
understanding of the factors that lead to the
The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status Report
destruction of marine species, and the ecosystems,
economies, and cultures dependent
on them. It requires evolution of existing management
philosophies and paradigms. A broad knowledge
of marine systems and a vision for sustainability
are therefore at the crux of protecting our
natural systems. The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status
Report seeks to assemble this type of information
for one marine species before it is too late.
Shrimp Fisheries in Context
Shrimp—harvested in the wild or produced via aquaculture—are
generally characterized as among
the most unsustainable of all global fisheries.
Destructive fishing methods, vast quantities of
bycatch, loss of mangroves, and coastal pollution
are only a few of the serious environmental and
social problems that have been associated with
the wild harvest and aquaculture of shrimp. Yet
shrimp is also one of the fastest-growing and most
lucrative global and domestic seafood markets.
Shrimp are one of the most valuable seafood
products imported into the United States. In 2000,
US shrimp imports were valued at US $3.8 billion.
In 2001, imports are expected to reach 775–785
million pounds—a value of between US $3.5 and
$3.8 billion (Department of Agriculture 2001).
The National Marine Fisheries Service reports
that nearly one billion pounds of shrimp were
consumed in the US in 1998, and that consumption
levels continue to rise (National Marine
Fisheries Service 1999a).
Unfortunately, the vast majority of shrimp consumers
do not know that the unsustainable production
and harvest of shrimp is devastating
ecosystems and local communities. Moreover,
they have no way of identifying or ordering sustainably
produced shrimp in a restaurant or
supermarket. There is a critical need to establish
an ecologically certified, sustainable shrimp fishery
that can be used to educate consumers, shift
seafood demand to more ecologically sound
products, and dramatically reduce demand
for unsustainably produced seafood.
The Spot Prawn Fishery
The spot prawn fishery on the West Coast of
North America, extending from Alaska to
California, has great potential to be an exception
to the ecological and social destruction that typifies
many shrimp fisheries. This potential is a
function of several factors:
•the ecological sensitivity of spot prawns and
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