Being a global issue, overfishing has caught the attention of many global organisatioins, activists, conservationists and of course the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation. All these parties have devised strategies and solutions to better the overfishing crisis; however, highlighting the approaches of two major organisations, WWF and Greenpeace, will sum up the overall global effort with regards to overfishing.
The World Wide Fund (WWF)
The World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), as expected, is highly involved in the issue of overfishing. Within the WWF’s Global Marine Programme, that aims to correct the damage that overfishing has caused and create sustainable, healthy marine ecosystems are; Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and Ecosystem-Based Management (EBM) (WWF, n.d)
The WWF defines their Marine Protected Area as: “An area designated to protect marine ecosystems, processes, habitats, and species, which can contribute to the restoration and replenishment of resources for social, economic, and cultural enrichment.” (WWF, n.d) For the success of these protected areas in terms of conservation, the WWF aims to establish and implement well-managed MPAs, improve the management of existing MPA’s and reduce external threats, such as human involvement and climate change. The benefits, they propose, offered by MPA’s include, the maintenance of biodiversity, the protection of important marine habitats and the provision of areas where fish can grow to their adult size, to name a few.
Ecosystem-Based Management is an attempt to find “new, innovative forms of management that conserve fish populations, don’t harm other marine species, protect the structure and function of marine ecosystems, and support sustainable fisheries and the fishers that depend on them.” (WWF, n.d) This method of conservation provides a holistic framework to rectify the overfishing crisis and it involves all stakeholders concerned. Through incorporating all stakeholders of the fishing industry, the WWF, believe that they will obtain better success in creating sustainable fisheries and restoring marine ecosystems (WWF, n.d)
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is and organisation, also very well known for their efforts in nature conservation. With regards to the problem of overfishing, Greenpeace, similarly to WWF, is working to protect marine reserves; however, they provide two other solutions that will assist the overfishing problem: sustainable fishing and sustainable seafood.
Sustainable fishing, a similar solution to the EBM, promotes the efficient management of fisheries as well as the protection of other marine life and marine ecosystems. However, Greenpeace has proposed sustainable fishing techniques as the method to promote sustainable fishing practices. They believe that fishing methods play a huge role in determining fisheries’ sustainability as well as the sustainability of marine life. (Greenpeace, n.d.) The Greenpeace ship, the Esperanza, is at present in the Pacific, defending the ocean from unsustainable and pirate fishing. (Greenpeace, n.d.)
The video below explains what the Esperanza is doing and serves as a visual example of Greenpeace’s involvement in protecting the ocean.
Sustainable seafood, the other solution Greenpeace proposes for overfishing, involves retailers and consumers. They believe that “if retailers and consumers shift towards purchasing sustainable seafood, then the demand for fish caught using destructive and unsustainable practices will decline” (Greenpeace, n.d)
To assist this, Greenpeace has created the Seafood Redlist, a guide that informs people which fish are being overfished and therefore be avoided. With the use of this guide, retailers can stop buying fish from unsustainable sources, increase the range of seafood that is deemed sustainable and work with suppliers to promote sustainable fishing practices. For consumers, the Seafood Redlist, can assist their fish purchasing decisions and show them what fish not to buy. In conjunction with the Seafood Redlist, consumers can and should interrogate retailers as to where and how the fish was caught and from there, support retailers that support sustainable seafood. (Greenpeace, n.d)
References:
1. Greenpeace. (n.d.). Defending our oceans. Available: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/overfishing/our-work/defendingouroceans09. Last accessed 14 April 2011.
2. Greenpeace. (n.d.). Sustainable Fishing. Available: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/overfishing/solutions/sustianablefishing. Last accessed 14 April 2011.
3. Greenpeace. (n.d.). Sustainable Seafood. Available: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/overfishing/solutions/sustinableseafood. Last accessed 14 April 2011
4. WWF. (n.d.). Saving a precious resource. Available: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/conservation/marine/sustainable_fishing/. Last accessed 14 April 2011
5. WWF. (n.d.). Our Solutions: Marine Protected Areas. Available: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/how_we_work/conservation/marine/protected_areas/. Last accessed 14 April 2011.
Video:
Greenpeace. (2009). Greenpeace heads out to defend Pacific tuna stocks [Online Video]. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VogLUOUuwWk. Last accessed 15 April 2011.
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