Current fishing practices are “bankrupting our oceans”

Oct 16, 2012 06:51 GMT  ·  By

According to a new study made public by the World Wildlife Fund earlier today, it is of utmost importance that the European Union sees to it that the fisheries under its jurisdiction push for sustainability and allow fish stock to recover.

As this organization points out, current fishing practices should be held responsible for “bankrupting out oceans.”

To cut a long story short: reforming the working agenda of the fisheries presently up and running has as much to do with financial benefits as it has with environmental policies.

It is expected that, should the European Union agree to implement a new fishing legislation, the year 2022 could witness an increase of as much as 80% in the productivity of fisheries.

The specialists who have conducted this study argue that, in 10 years' time, fisheries could catch an additional 2.8 million tons of fish, and that this would in turn translate into an extra income of up to €2.1 billion per year.

One does not have to be a specialist to understand that said amount of money would be more than welcome as far as national economies are concerned, and that fishermen would also be quite pleased as their average income would up by roughly 50%.

Tony Longdon, presently working with the World Wildlife Fund's European Policy Office, made a case of how, “UE fisheries have been close to the edge of bankruptcy.”

Furthermore, “EU fisheries have the potential to be highly productive. A long-term stable supply of fish is possible, but only if fish resources are managed sustainably. Now is the time to put the much needed policy and financial structures in place and put a stop to bankrupting our oceans.”

Just for the record, it seems that throughout the past 15 years, people working for the EU fishing industry have witnessed virtually no increase in their annual incomes.

Moreover, employment rates have been gradually decreasing.