PROCEEDINGS OF THE FOuRTH INTERNaTIONal FISHERS FORum

[ 6.2. ]
Keynote Address
Reducing bycatch in longline
fisheries as a step towards
keeping jobs, protecting nature
and building a market
James P. Leape
Director General, WWF-International
Fishing provides an essential food source as well as
livelihoods for millions of people. Yet many of the world’s
fisheries are close to collapse and have serious impacts on
marine ecosystems. It is the health of these ecosystems
which provides a sustained catch and a living for fishers.
In many parts of the world damaging fishing practices, such
as unfettered bycatch, poor management, such as too many
vessels in a fishery, or not heeding scientific advice, are
leading to the depletion of stocks, degradation of the ocean
and the devastation of communities. Market demand, weak
governance, and harmful government subsidies all fuel these
damaging practices.
This does not, however, have to be the future for fisheries.
Many countries, companies and fishers are changing
the way the fishing sector does business. For example:
ASOEXPEBLA, the Ecuadorian association of white fish
exporters and FENACOPEC, the Ecuadorian Federation
of Fisherman Co-ops, are championing the transformation
of their fleets toward sustainability—starting by using
circle hooks to avoid the bycatch of turtles. Walmart has
pledged to buy seafood only from MSC certified sources.
The longline fishers of Oaxaca in Mexico are willing to test
circle hooks and join the hundreds of fishermen willing to
be best practitioners of sustainable fishing operations, such
as CANIP, the Costa Rican Longline Industry Association,
and many individual fishermen and companies in Central
America, Colombia and Peru have done. Finally, the
government of Costa Rica is planning to reduce the footprint
of its fleets in order to combat the impact of climate change.
Several fisheries in the Central American region are shining
examples of the types of reforms that are needed if the sector
is to prosper and even survive.
WWF, together with partners at the local level and in
industry, have already launched cooperative experiments
with longline fleets on both sides of the Pacific, with over
100,000 circle hooks tested and evaluated through 10 cycles
each, for a total of one million tests in the water, and have
an ongoing voluntary observer program. A regional database
is in place, a structure without precedence at this scale.
A regional, multi-stakeholder alliance including industrial
and artisanal fisherfolk, government agencies, NGOs, and
regional management authorities is driving the up-take of best
practices in longlining. WWF is at the forefront of engaging
with the fisheries sector in the precise way in which it adopts
new technologies and practices, building the case together for
incentive-driven fisheries change—and we are committed to
delivering this change in partnership with the fishing industry.
It is clear that there is another way than to deplete fisheries
and damage the ocean’s health. Retailers and consumers
are demanding that seafood comes from sustainable and
non-damaging fisheries. Forward thinking fishers are seeing
this as an opportunity, both to gain access to markets but
also as a tool to increase the sustainability of their catch and
therefore their income. Enlightened governments, through
legislation and good management need to ensure reforms are
supported, that those that do the right thing are protected,
and that the health and productivity of the oceans is restored.
Today WWF is working with retailers, processors, fishers
and resource managers under a shared vision of sustainable
fishing. This is a vision of empowered fishers free to make
choices about the best way to continuously improve
their fishing because they know that they will benefit
economically. This is a vision where consumers do not have
to avoid buying swordfish or tuna because of a bycatch issue;
instead all the choices in the fish market are caught using the
best available practices (sustainably). This is a vision where
scientists monitor and assess fishing impacts, and based
on that science, authorities set strict quotas that allow for
a healthy marine ecosystem and thus a productive fishery.
WWF pledges to support those that wish to work with us
to achieve this vision, both with practical assistance and
political leverage where we can.
Keynote Address
25