- JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -
Protecting the world's oceans will cost governments far less than the amount
they spend on subsidies for fishing fleets and will lead to bigger catches
in the long run, according to a new study.
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- The study, by conservation group WWF International and
Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, estimates that a network
of marine protected areas (MPAs) covering 30 percent of Earth's oceans
would cost $12-14 billion annually.
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- It says this falls far short of the $15-30 billion already
spent each year on subsidies to commercial fisheries, which environmentalists
say encourages overfishing.
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- The study was published on Monday in the U.S. journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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- "MPAs turn around fisheries and build up (fish)
populations in adjacent areas," said Callum Roberts, one of the study's
authors who is a fisheries biologist at the University of York in England.
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- "In St. Lucia in the Caribbean, fish catches increased
by 50 to 100 percent as a consequence of MPAs created in 1995," he
told Reuters by telephone from his UK office.
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- Roberts said priority areas included tropical coral reef
systems, which are threatened by overfishing and climate change.
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- MINISCULE PORTION OF SEA UNDER PROTECTION
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- According to WWF, only 0.5 percent of the sea is under
protection, compared to 12 percent of the planet's land area.
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- But the study says increasing marine protection to 30
percent of the global total would cost less than the subsidies that are
splashed out on fishing fleets.
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- Critics argue that lavish government support, especially
in the European Union, keeps unprofitable boats afloat and effectively
pays them to chase after dwindling fish stocks.
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- "It (fishing subsidies) encourages too much capital
into the industry and people are fishing for subsidies rather than fish
in the end," said Roberts.
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- The report estimates that setting up and running an expanded
network of MPAs would generate between 830,000 and 1.1 million full-time
jobs directly. Further jobs would be created through increased fish catches
and other spin-offs such as ecotourism.
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- It estimates MPAs would help preserve marine services
valued at an estimated $7.0 trillion a year. This includes cash generated
by tourism, fishing, waste recycling and the price of coastal properties.
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- Nearly 75 per cent of fisheries are categorized as overfished
or fished to the limit. Some, like the once teeming cod fishery off the
east coast of Canada, have completely collapsed and may never recover.
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- WWF said marine habitat loss now equals or exceeds that
of rain forests, with 60 per cent of coral reefs expected to be lost by
2030 if present rates of decline continue.
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