Los vikingos en los libros de Historia medieval

In this chapter, we consider why we need to explore what sustainable seafood is.

2.1 Ocean Crisis: Depletion of Marine Life

Fishing is an ancient human activity. Fish and seafood remain an essential source of protein and essential nutrients in the world. Protein from fish is a crucial nutritional component in some densely populated countries⁶ such as the East Asian countries surrounding the East China Sea. Consuming fish is particularly important as a lifestyle.

Figure 1: Contribution of Fish Animal Protein Supply (Average 2011-2013) From FAO SOFIA

6 Report of a Joint WHO/FAO Expert Consultation. (2003). Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases (pp. 23) (online).

10

In addition, in the modern industrial food chain, fishmeal and algae can be used as animal feed for livestock and poultry and as fertilizers for crops. Among them, aquaculture is the largest user of fishmeal.⁷

However, although people know that a healthy marine ecological system and a sustainable fishery are significant for the Earth’s ecology and human society, the development pressure being forced upon the sea is becoming greater by reason of the global population growth and increased consumer capability, improvement of fishing technology, and higher capacity of fishing. Aside from these, many reasons contributed to the collapse of marine ecological resources. For example, subsidies from governments led to continuing destructive fishing practices. The incompetence of fisheries management and weak law enforcement are damaging ocean health. In Asia, inaccurate and unclear fishing statistics make the plight of fisheries management more difficult.

In the East China Sea, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are deeply influenced by China’s rising consumer power and unbridled illegal fishing activities conducted by Chinese fishing vessels. Marine resource management of each country is severely challenged and interfered with by fishing vessels from China violating territorial waters. In April 2013, a local Chinese newspaper, Qianjiang Evening News, for the first time in great detail reported the embarrassing moment of fishermen that “there are no fish to fish in the East China Sea”. This news caught the attention of the Chinese government, and they have been reinforcing fisheries management for the past five years. However, there is a long way to go to reach an ideal and balanced fisheries management.

7 Hasan, M.R. (2017). Feeding Global Aquaculture Growth. FAO Aquaculture Newsletter, 56, pp. ii-iii (online).

11

Therefore, for the past twenty years, international organizations and environmental groups have begun to pay attention to the “sustainable seafood” issue. Although there is a wide range of definition with regard to “sustainable seafood”, the consensus globally agreed is that any fishing activities which violated regulations of any nations or international organizations are deemed to be “non-sustainable seafood”.

Second, academically speaking, the seafood obtained from fishing methods which destroy the marine environment and marine ecology are usually deemed to be non-sustainable seafood by marine scholars and environmental groups. For this reason, scholars and environmentalists will probably continue to ask governments to take actions against non-sustainable seafood, such as the great white shark meat at the top of the biological chain.

Besides, academically or from the point of view of consumers, there are seafood issues under debate that need to be resolved by brainstorming from all fields in terms of law and regulations. For example, the bycatch of dolphin, non-targeted fish species, or the exploitation of vast quantities of juvenile fish being viewed as non-sustainable seafood.

Last, in order to smoothly discuss and evaluate the degree of sustainability for various fisheries, an evaluation standard of sustainable seafood ecolabel named “ProFish” devised by the present author is introduced in this chapter; this evaluation standard is a basis for evaluating the sufficiency of fisheries management, law, and regulations. This seafood ecolabel design also is consistent with the topic of this dissertation: “Sustainable Ecolabelled Seafood”. It is believed that ecolabels can help guide the development of the fishery industries towards environmentally-friendly practices because ecolabels are able to drive the power of consumers, retail purchases, and government or corporate green procurement.

12

2.2 Fish Caught by IUU Fishing Are Not Sustainable Seafood

Illegal fishing damages the ocean and the economy. However, the fewer fish there are, the more desperately fishermen want to catch them. Unreported fishing means the inability to understand and assess marine resources accurately. Unregulated Fishing often takes advantage of legal loopholes to escape the regulations and requirements of catch reporting.

The issue of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in worldwide fisheries and local ocean conservation is an increasing global concern. Due to the lack of political will, priority, capacity, and resources to implement laws and regulations, existing international instruments addressing IUU fishing are not very effective. Environmentalists propose that their country combat IUU fishing. In the context of the 1999 Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and its objective of sustainable fisheries, the FAO developed a global plan in 2001: International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, (IPOA-IUU).⁸

The IPOA-IUU is a voluntary instrument that applies to all States and other entities and to all fishermen. Based on the IPOA-IUU, many countries have formulated a mechanism to combat IUU fishing within the system of domestic laws in their own administrative style.

Take the United States, for example. In December 2016, the United States National Ocean Council Committee on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Seafood Fraud (NOC Committee)⁹ established the Seafood Import Monitoring Program to deal with

8 See http://www.fao.org/fishery/ipoa-iuu/en

9 See https://www.iuufishing.noaa.gov/About/NOCCommitteeHistory.aspx:

The NOC Committee was established to take the place of a 2014 Presidential Task Force on Combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud in April 2015. The NOC Committee is comprised of the same fourteen federal agency members as the Task Force and continues to be co-chaired by NOAA and the Department of State.

(To be continued)

13

IUU fishing seafood entering the United States market officially. The new rule, in effect as of 1 January 2018, established reporting and record-keeping requirements from the point of harvest to the point of entry into United States commerce for certain seafood species. This first phase of the program applies to those imported fish identified as particularly vulnerable to illegal fishing and fraud, such as Atlantic cod, Pacific cod, King Crab, Mahi-mahi, grouper, sharks, and so on.

Taiwan announced its “National Plan of Action of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing” in April 2013, but it lacks specific effective measures. The Taiwan Government takes the Plan seriously because the EU issued a "yellow card" warning to Taiwan for insufficient cooperation on combating IUU fishing in October 2015.

2.2.1 Illegal

Illegal fishing undermines every country’s efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks in wild capture fisheries. This leads to the loss of short and long-term social and economic benefits and has negative effects on food security and environmental protection.

In the IPOA-IUU, the definition of illegal fishing refers to activities:¹⁰

(1) “conducted by national or foreign vessels in waters under the jurisdiction of a State, without the permission of that State, or in contravention of its laws and regulations”;

(2) “conducted by vessels flying the flag of States that are parties to a relevant regional fisheries management organization but operate in contravention of the conservation and management measures adopted by that organization

Following its establishment, the NOC Committee immediately formed federal working groups for each Recommendation detailed in the Action Plan.

10 Report of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2001). International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. (p. 2) (online).

14

and by which the States are bound, or relevant provisions of the applicable international law”; or

(3) “in violation of national laws or international obligations, including those undertaken by cooperating States to a relevant regional fisheries management organization”.

The definition of illegal fishing is unambiguous, and illegal activities are easy to identify, but whether a country implements law enforcement or not is another matter. In Taiwan, the Coast Guard is in charge of policing illegal activities, and the Fisheries Agency is in charge of issuing to fishermen an official notice of illegal fishing when fishing vessels violate fisheries laws and regulations. The original intention of the division of labor was satisfactory, but it has led to an unexpected problem. Because the Taiwan Coast Guard does not have the right to issue a ticket to the captain directly, it cannot effectively deter fishermen from illegal fishing on the spot. Moreover, given the endless numbers of Chinese vessels that cross the border and engage in illegal fishing, the Taiwan Coast Guard does not have enough vessels to expel or detain Chinese fishing boats. Large numbers of cross-border Chinese fishing boats in the East China Sea plague Japan and South Korea as well.

2.2.2 Unreported

In the IPOA-IUU, the definition of unreported fishing refers to activities:

(1) “which have not been reported, or have been misreported, to the relevant national authority, in contravention of national laws and regulations;” or (2) “undertaken in the area of competence of a relevant regional fisheries

management organization which have not been reported or have been misreported, in contravention of the reporting procedures of that organization.”

The fish stocks of many common and crucial economic fish species in the world have declined, such as tuna. In order to ensure sustainable fisheries, it is vital to obtain the correct catch figures as an essential reference tool in formulating fisheries policies.

15

Therefore, regional fisheries management organizations attach great importance to the landing declaration of important species.

Although the Taiwan Fisheries Agency has published the "Fisheries Statistical Yearbook" for decades, they are often regarded as having no reference value. The reason is not difficult to understand. This annual report was usually filed by local government officials, who without engaging in fishing by themselves, interview fishermen and estimate some figures. Take the mackerel caught in the East China Sea, for example. Before 2014, the fishing ports located in the Keelung City of Taiwan did not have a weighbridge. In the past, the annual fishery report showed that Keelung fishing vessels caught about 300 tons of mackerel per year. However, after the weighbridges were set up in Keelung Chen-Pin Fishing Port and Badouzi Fishing Port in 2014 and fishing boats were forced to weigh the mackerel yield, the figure of mackerel yield in the East China Sea in 2014 increased to 52,000 tons, an increase of 173 times that of 2013.

On 18 March 2015, the Taiwan Fisheries Agency finally issued the “Regulations on the Reporting of Landing Declaration”, requiring offshore and inshore fishing boats to declare the weight of fish catch unloaded. On 20 January 2016, the Taiwan Fisheries Agency issued the "Act for Distant Water Fisheries". Now the fish unloaded from Taiwanese offshore fishing boats must be weighed in accordance with the Act for Pelagic fisheries and relevant regulations. On 24 April 2018, the original name of the "Regulations on the Reporting of Landing Declaration" was amended to "Regulations on the Reporting of Landing Declaration for Coastal Fishing Vessels". The amended regulation requires that fishing boats weighing more than ten tons must file their landing declaration for each voyage.

16

However, the implementation of the regulations is far from satisfactory. As of June 2017, only 13% of the voyages filed the landing declarations.

How to improve the compliance rate of filing landing declarations is a top priority task for Taiwan coastal and offshore fisheries management. Related recommendations are discussed in Chapters Eight and Chapter Ten below.

2.2.3 Unregulated

In the IPOA-IUU, the definition of unregulated fishing refers to fishing activities:

(1) “in the area of application of a relevant regional fisheries management organization that are conducted by vessels without nationality, or by those flying the flag of a State not party to that organization, or by a fishing entity, in a manner that is not consistent with or contravenes the conservation and management measures of that organization”; or

(2) “in areas or for fish stocks in relation to which there are no applicable conservation or management measures and where such fishing activities are conducted in a manner inconsistent with State responsibilities for the conservation of living marine resources under international law.”

As to the first point, the best example is the Flag of Convenience (FOC) fishing boat.

Flag of Convenience refers to a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag State. The term is often used pejoratively, and the practice is regarded as contentious.¹¹

Taiwanese were well-known for having flag of convenience ships to catch tuna on the high seas. Due to the pressure from international fisheries organizations, Taiwan has been increasingly strict in the management of pelagic fishing in the past twenty years. Some Taiwanese registered their Taiwanese fishing vessels in other countries, even landlocked

11 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience

17

countries, such as Mongolia – countries whose fisheries management is not strict. These Taiwanese-investor flag of convenience fishing vessels circumvent conservation management requirements and sometimes obtain fishery quotas of other countries in regional fisheries management organizations.

Taiwan pelagic fisheries have an important position among world fisheries.

Conservationists have long warned that several tuna stocks are declining, and regional international fisheries management organizations have adopted strict quota management systems. Taiwan imposed restrictions on the construction of pelagic fishing vessels and no longer allows new pelagic fishing vessels. Therefore, some Taiwanese purchased old or new fishing vessels to register them abroad with countries who allow flags of convenience. Some vessels illegally caught tuna without quota control on the high seas. The illegal catch sold by Taiwanese fishing vessels is commonly known as “fish laundering”.

At the annual meetings of ICCAT in 2004 and 2005, Japan and the United States severely criticized some Taiwanese fishing vessels for illegal fishing of bigeye tuna in the Atlantic. Japan accused Taiwan of exceeding its allowable quota by 4,000 tons in the last five years and suggested a reduction in Taiwan's quota. Japan also reported two recent illegal cases involving Taiwanese captains engaging in “tuna laundering” and estimated that Taiwan secretly catches about 18,000 tons of bigeye tuna each year.¹²

Taiwan was penalized at the annual meeting of ICCAT 2005 under ICCAT Resolution 05-02.¹³ Taiwan's 2006 quota of bigeye for the Atlantic was cut from 16,500 to 4,600 tons,

12 Chiu, Yu-Tzu. (2004, November 27). Taiwan penalized after exceeding fishing quota. Taipei Times, 2.

Retrieved from http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/11/27/2003212734

13 Recommendation by ICCAT Regarding Control of Chinese Taipei’s Atlantic Bigeye Tuna Fishery. (2005, February). Retrieved from https://www.ofdc.org.tw/components/Editor/ICCAT/files/05-02.pdf

18

which was worth about US$100 million to the industry. And the numbers of Taiwanese vessels permitted to fish in the Atlantic were reduced from 100 to 15.

However, after Taiwan strengthened the management of Taiwanese pelagic fisheries, drastically reduced the number of fishing vessels, and promised to legislate to control Taiwanese investing in the operation of non-Taiwanese flag vessels, Taiwan was finally re-accepted by ICCAT member countries, and Resolution ICCAT Res. 05-02 was replaced by ICCAT Res. 06-01¹⁴ in the 2006 annual meeting; the quota of Taiwan for bigeye tuna was returned to the level of 14,900 tons in 2014.

The Taiwan Fisheries Agency drafted the “Act to Govern Investment in the Operation of Foreign Flag Fishing Vessels” in 2006. The Legislative Yuan of Taiwan adopted the Act in 2008. This Act exceeds the scope of the duties of the flag State set out in Article 94 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Therefore, in Taiwanese fishing industry circles, it is considered that this Act was an abnormal outcome of international pressure.

In addition to stricter management of pelagic fishing vessels, the Taiwan Fisheries Agency is beginning to strengthen conservation measures for living marine resources in the territorial waters and exclusive economic zone. This aspect is the main focus of the present dissertation. Details are discussed in Chapters Six and Seven.

14 Recommendation by ICCAT Regarding Chinese Taipei. (2006, June). Retrieved from https://www.ofdc.org.tw/components/Editor/ICCAT/files/06-01.pdf

19

2.3 Fish Caught by Destructive Practices Are Not Sustainable Seafood

2.3.1 Poison, Electricity, and Explosives

Although fishing with the use of toxic substances, electricity, or explosives targets specific species in the ocean, all non-target species, including plankton and young fish, will be affected; they will either die or lose the ability to reproduce. Therefore, the aforementioned three fishing methods are categorized as being the most severely destructive.

In Taiwan anyone who carries on fishing by using toxic substances, electricity, or explosives is subject to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

How these methods are practiced and their impacts are introduced below:

Use of Toxic Substances

Toxic means fishing by using poisonous substances. Fishermen dissolve poisonous substances such as cyanide in water and cast the solution into sea or river tracks to poison the fish. The dead fish float on the surface, and the fishermen quickly catch them in fish nets.

The residual cyanide in the fish harms consumer health, but also kills the animals in the area. When the poisoned dead carcasses sink to the bottom of the river or float adrift along the river tracks, they pollute the water and surrounding environment, destroying the ecological system and adversely affecting fishery resources.

Use of Electricity

Electricity means fishing by using electric power. This practice can be divided into two categories: "fishing boat equipped with electrified fishing gear net" and "personnel using simple electrified fishing gear". It is immaterial which method fishermen prefer. The ultimate goal is to utilize electricity to kill or knock out fish in order to catch them when they are

20

afloat. However, the electric current discharged into the water will cause damage to the gonads on fish in the vicinity, making them infertile. Simultaneously, the electric current will kill all the fish eggs, shrimp eggs, and loach eggs in the water. The electricity will harm invertebrates. Anywhere that voltage was discharged can exterminate fish and damage ecological systems, and this can affect the regeneration of the fisheries, ultimately causing the depletion of fisheries resources.

Use of Explosives

Explosives means a fisherman engages in fishing by using bombs. He casts dynamite into the water where a school of fish gathers and detonates the explosive devices, killing all the fish. When they are dead and afloat, simple fishing nets are used to collect them.

However, the explosive shockwaves not only cause the death of fish, shrimp, clams, starfish, and sea urchins, but also demolish the seabed habitat. The benthos moves to other places.

However, the explosive shockwaves not only cause the death of fish, shrimp, clams, starfish, and sea urchins, but also demolish the seabed habitat. The benthos moves to other places.