Lack of honesty in saving global fisheries resources

Due to the greed of big companies, fish and other resources in the ocean are gradually depleting globally. With the development of human civilization, fishing has been the main means of employment for the people living on the sea coast. In India, which has a coastline of 7,516 kilometers, our traditional fishermen have been earning their living by fishing almost along the entire coastline. Around 50 crore small fishermen across the world including India are engaged in this work. Goal number 14.6, one of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, states that sustainable development is being affected due to overfishing, hence it is necessary to limit it. It is true that depletion of fish and other marine resources is threatening the future availability of fish for mankind on a permanent basis, but the question is who is responsible for this? According to the World Food Organization (FAO), in 1974, 10 percent more fish was being caught than could be sustained. This surplus had increased to 35.4 percent by 2019. In such a situation, the United Nations’ concern about fish resources is natural.

Due to less fish in the sea, not only will there be a huge reduction in the availability of fish in the future, but the livelihood of 50 crore fishermen of the world will also be in danger. Even though 50 crore small fishermen are engaged in fishing, but their share in the total fish catch is The share is only 40 percent, while some selected companies have 60 percent share in the exploitation of marine resources. Small fishermen, who have been involved in this work since the beginning of human civilization, are not at all responsible for the overfishing. If anyone is responsible for this, it is the big companies who go beyond the economic zones of their respective countries and fish in the distant seas. Since all this work is done by machines and they have additional resources, they are able to catch more and more fish and earn a lot of profit by selling it. We have to understand that while fishing is the lifestyle and basis of livelihood of small fishermen, deep sea fishing by big companies with the help of huge ships is motivated only by profit. It is no secret that developed countries are responsible for the depletion of marine resources because their big ships, after exhausting their fish, go to exploit deep sea resources in remote waters with the help of subsidies given by their respective governments. Have been.

If progress is to be made in achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal number 14.6, then the excesses of these big companies in developed countries for the purpose of profit will have to be stopped. According to OECD Fisheries Subsidy Estimates (2014–16) and data from the FAO Yearbook, Fisheries and Aquaculture Statistics, 2016, Denmark provides subsidies per fisherman worth $75,578, Sweden $65,979, New Zealand $36,512 and the UK $2,146. , whereas in India it is barely 15 dollars. While the developed countries are seen shedding crocodile tears over the shortage of fish on global forums, they are not ready to correct their mistakes. A similar scene was seen in the ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization held in Abu Dhabi. The topic of disciplining fisheries subsidies first came up at the Doha Ministerial Conference in 2001. Some members demanded that fisheries subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity in the oceans should be banned. In this, emphasis was laid on eliminating illegal, uninformed and irregular subsidies. Members adopted the fisheries subsidies agreement at the 2022 ministerial conference in Geneva, but it could only be formally adopted if two-thirds of WTO members ratified it.

At the Abu Dhabi Conference 2024, developed countries, which were advocating ending even minimal subsidies to traditional fishermen in developing countries in the name of depletion of sea fish, had to face a broader truth. Developing countries insisted that this agreement could be taken forward only if subsidies to companies owning large deep sea fishing vessels were stopped. He also said that developing countries will have to extend the subsidy exemption for fishing in their marine economic zones to 25 years. Naturally, developed countries were not ready to stop subsidizing their deep sea fishing vessels and no agreement could be reached on fishing subsidies in the conference. It is clear that until the greed of big companies is not ended, progress cannot be made towards the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on fishing.
(These are the personal views of the author.)