42017 China Wants Fish, So Aiea Goos Hungry - The Naw York Times
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The Opinion Pages | rprronrat
China Wants Fish, So Africa Goes Hungry
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD = MAY3, 2017
Ofall the stresses that humans have inflicted on the world’s oceans, including,
pollution and global warming, industrial fishing ranks high. For years, trawlers
capable of scouring the ocean floor, and factory ships trailing driftnets and longlines
baited with thousands of hooks, have damaged once-abundant fisheries to the point
where, the United Nations says, 90 percent of them are now fully exploited or facing
collapse.
The damage is not just to the fish and the ecosystem but also to people who
depend on them for food and income. This is particularly true in Africa. In 2008, in
two striking articles, The Times reported that mechanized fleets from the European
Union, Russia and China had nearly picked clean the oceans off Senegal and other
northwest African countries, ruining coastal economies.
s still happening, but now, according to a report by The Tim:
Jacobs, China stands alone as the major predator.
With its own waters heavily overfished, and being forced to forage elsewhere to
feed its people, the Chinese government commands a fleet of nearly 2,600 vessels,
10 times larger than the United States fleet, all heavily subsidized. As Zhang,
‘For China’s
Hongzhou of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University observes,
leaders, ensuring a steady supply of aquatic products is not just about good
economics but social stability and political legitimacy.”
‘The result: The Chinese government is basically snatching fish out of the nets of
poor fishermen in Africa in order to keep fish on plates in China. A new study
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published by the journal Frontiers in Marine Science says that most Chinese ships
are so large that they scoop up as many fish in a week as Senegalese boats catch in a
year, costing West African economies some $2 billion.
Further, many Chinese ships don’t hesitate to break the law to meet soaring,
demand. In 2015, Greenpeace found numerous cases of illegal Chinese fishing in
West African waters, including ships that misreported their coordinates or
underreported their tonnage: known ploys to fish in prohibited areas. Yet this
presents nations like Senegal with a difficult choice, because China is also pumping
$60 billion into African development. As Alassane Samba, the former head of
Senegal’s Oceanic Research Institute, put it, “It’s hard to say no to China when they
are building your roads.”
China isn’t the only player in this drama. The European Union cuts deals with
African nations to catch fish to meet global demand it can no longer satisfy with fish
from its own waters. American companies, which have seen some remarkable
recovery of once-threatened coastal fish stocks after limiting catches, buy fish taken
from far-off waters by Chinese and other vessels, much of it processed into pet food.
Russia and Japan reap the world’s fish bounty as well.
The good news, such as it is, is that some nations whose waters are at risk are
rebelling, and the Chinese may slowly be getting the message. Indonesia has
impounded scores of Chinese boats caught poaching in its waters, and Argentina
sunk a Chinese vessel after it tried to ram a coast guard ship. There have been
clashes between Chinese fishermen and the authorities in South Korea.
China has pledged to cut fuel subsidies to its fleet by 60 percent by 2019. “The
era of fishing any way you want, wherever you want, has passed,” says Liu Xinzhong,
deputy general director of the Bureau of Fisheries in Beijing. In January, China’s
Ministry of Agriculture announced measures aimed at protecting China’s own
fisheries, including possible catch limits.
That could eventually take some pressure off African and other international
waters
So could the international compact known formally as the Agreement on
Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and
Unregulated Fishing, which went into effect last year. The treaty seeks to identify
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