The Tragedy Continues

The Economist has a very interesting article on the world's depleting fish stocks and the effect it will have on global food supplies. Here are some tidbits,

Signs of growing scarcity are everywhere: fish are getting smaller, as are catches. Some fishing grounds, such as Canada’s Grand Banks and Europe’s North Sea, are so seriously depleted that they may never fully recover; North Sea stocks of cod have shrunk to about 10% of 1970 levels. Even the last of the world’s waters to be exploited—in the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean, and round Antarctica—have succumbed to the rapaciousness of vast fishing fleets. All over the world, governments are wrestling with the problem, trying to balance what’s best for the sea against what’s best for their fishing industries.

And,

So total world production (both marine and inland) increased steadily from 19.3m tonnes in 1950 to 100m tonnes in 1989 and 134m tonnes in 2002. On current projections, it will rise to 179m tonnes by 2015. Ultimately, this could be bad for business: theory suggests that the maximum sustainable yield that can be cropped from a fishery comes when the biomass (amount of living matter) of a target species is about 50% of its original level. Most fisheries are already well below that.

And here is where the economics comes in,

Others argue that the focus for the near term should be on beating the fishing fleets at their own game. Today’s vessels can find their prey using sonar and satellites, meaning that a higher proportion of what is in the sea can be caught quickly and easily (though much of this is unwanted “by-catch” which is usually thrown back). Some policy wonks think that satellites should now also be used to track those boats and ensure they are not breaking quota agreements. However, a better first step might be a system of long-term quotas that are transferable between countries, similar to the recently established global carbon-trading scheme.

Some system of quota trading would be the most beneficial in this case, as it might reduce incentive to break the quotas agreed upon. Still, there needs to be some action on an issue like this, and the idea of fish farming, which is also mentioned in the article, seems to be somewhat promising, although it has its fair share of problems: like low yield, pollution, and being bad for biodiversity. Perhaps the solution lies in shifting our consumption patterns to more easily renewable resources, whatever those may be (soy? chicken?). Overall, the future does not look too good for the fishies... or us.

Full Article at The Economist.