JP\/6\/MIKEL<\/p>\n
Michael Richardson, Singapore<\/p>\n
Relations between China and Indonesia have become a casualty
\nof action by an Indonesian warship last week in opening fire on a
\nChinese fishing boat, killing a crewman and wounding two others.
\nBut given the increasingly close ties between the two countries,
\nwhich forged a strategic partnership in April, the damage is
\nlikely to be shortlived.<\/p>\n
More significant is the underlying cause of the incident --
\nillegal fishing in Indonesian waters by vessels from China and
\nother nations that range far from home because fishing grounds in
\ntheir own waters have been depleted by over-harvesting.<\/p>\n
China is just one of Asia's so-called distant water fishing
\nnations. Other major Asian fishing powers include Thailand,
\nJapan, South Korea and Taiwan. Their vessels frequently run into
\ntrouble in Indonesian waters where the navy has been seeking to
\ncrack down on foreign fishermen operating without permits.<\/p>\n
Poaching is not just an Asian problem. It is happening around
\nthe world as too many boats (often subsidized by governments)
\nchase too few fish, causing clashes of interest with other
\nnations that still have attractive fishing rounds. But the
\nproblem is especially acute in Asia.<\/p>\n
The region has the world's largest fishing fleet, with 42
\npercent of the its registered tonnage. The Asian Development Bank
\nsays that these vessels have twice the capacity needed to extract
\nwhat the oceans can sustainably produce. The result, according to
\nthe ADB, is "a vicious circle: As catches per vessel fall,
\nprofits plummet, and fishers overfish to maintain supplies,
\ncausing serious depletion of stocks and endangering long-term
\navailability."<\/p>\n
While over-fishing is a global problem, its implications for
\nAsia are more serious than for any other part of the world. Fish
\nis a staple food in the region and a major source of protein. The
\nADB predicts that demand for fish in Asia will continue to rise,
\nreaching about 69 million tons by 2010 and accounting for 60
\npercent of world food fish demand, compared to some 53 percent in
\n1990.<\/p>\n
Although Japan will remain the biggest fish consumer on a per
\ncapita basis, China -- with a projected population of 1.4 billion
\n-- will take by far the biggest amount of fish by 2010, an
\nestimated 28 million tons. Can wild fisheries and aqaculture meet
\nthe demand from Asia and the rest of the planet?<\/p>\n
Last March the United Nations Food and Agriculture
\nOrganization issued a grim snapshot of the state of world
\nfisheries in a biannual report that warned of growing pressures
\non stocks since 2002 that was unsustainable amid rising
\nconsumption.<\/p>\n
The FAO said that 52 percent of world fish stocks were fully
\nexploited, compared with 47 percent three years ago, while nearly
\n25 percent were over-exploited. It said that seven of the top 10
\nmarine fish species were already stretched to their limits or in
\ndecline, including Chilean jack mackeral, Alaska pollock,
\nJapanese anchovy and blue whiting.<\/p>\n
"Stock depletion has implications for food security and
\neconomic development," said Ichiro Nomura, the FAO's Assistant
\nDirector General for Fisheries. "It reduces social welfare in
\ncountries around the world and undermines the well being of
\nunderwater ecosystems."<\/p>\n
The UN agency forecast that total world consumption of fish
\nmay rise by more than 25 percent to 179 million tons by 2015,
\nunderscoring the urgent need to rebuild depleted wild fish stocks
\nwhile increasing coastal farm fish production. Yet the latter,
\nnow widely practiced in Asia, is problematic because it often
\ncauses environmental damage.<\/p>\n
Over the past few decades, coastal aquaculture development in
\nAsia, especially shrimp farming, has led to the destruction of
\nhundreds of thousands of hectares of mangrove forests, which are
\nvital for filtering nutrients, cleansing water and protecting
\ncoastlines from floods and storms. In the Philippines, for
\nexample, it has been estimated that as much as 65 percent of the
\noriginal 450,000 hectares of mangroves have been converted to
\nother uses, chiefly brackish water fishponds.<\/p>\n
Effluent from aquaculture ponds and pens is frequently
\nreleased, polluting surrounding waterways. The effluent includes
\nfertilizer, undigested feed and biological waste from the fish
\nthat are bred this way. Farmed fish that escape into the wild can
\nthreaten native species by acting as predators, competing for
\nfood and habitat, or inter-breeding and changing the genetic
\npools of wild organisms.<\/p>\n
Rapidly increasing demand in Asia for animal feed with high
\nfish-protein content is also contributing to pressure on the wild
\nstocks from which these products are derived. Meanwhile, imposing
\nquotas so that over-fished areas can recover is unpopular and
\ndifficult to enforce.<\/p>\n
Can Asia meet future demand fish? The ADB says that the answer
\nwill be positive only if strong action is taken to improve wild
\nfisheries resource management, develop aquiculture in a
\nresponsible way and better protect the environment. Otherwise, it
\nwarns, the region could face a serious shortage of fish.<\/p>\n
One promising avenue would be to reduce waste. Wild-fishing
\noperations capture, kill and discard a massive quantity of by
\ncatch -- fish that are the wrong size, a commercially
\nunattractive species or otherwise undesirable. They concentrate
\non filling their freezers with only the most profitable fish.<\/p>\n
The International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington
\nDC has calculated that more than 20 million tons a year of fish
\nand other marine organisms are discarded at sea. This is the
\nequivalent of nearly 20 percent of annual amount of fish eaten in
\nthe world.<\/p>\n
The writer, a former Asia editor of the International Herald
\nTribune, is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of
\nSoutheast Asian Studies in Singapore. This is a personal comment.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/jp6mikel-1447899208",
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