Experts Analyze Illegal Fishing in the Southwest Pacific and the Galapagos

Three specialists in biology, law and ecology participated the day before (Wednesday) in a virtual seminar on illegal fishing in the marine areas of the Andean countries, in the southwest Pacific Ocean, and in the Galapagos Islands, organized by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) from Ecuador.

Marine biologist Mauricio Castrejón, a researcher at the Ecuadorian University of the Americas, focused his presentation on the validity of an Ecuadorian regulation that prohibits fishing for tuna and sharks, but allows fishing to be carried out “incidentally”, a practice that it borders on the illegal slaughter of these species.

For Castrejón, Ecuadorian regulations must be maintained until there are conclusive studies that allow determining other alternatives to protect shark species, many of which are threatened and in danger of extinction.

The analysis in that chapter is important, above all, because there is a very fine line when it comes to bycatch and illegal fishing.

Although in the Galapagos Islands regulations have controlled shark fishing, on the continental coasts of Ecuador, volumes of catches prior to the norm are maintained, between 6,000 metric tons per year, said the specialist.

With this information, Castrejón said that there may be an “intentionality” in the so-called “incidental capture” of sharks, whose fins are traded on the black market at about US $ 60.

The specialist suggested improving controls and also identifying marine areas on the continental coasts of Ecuador in which the capture of sharks is prohibited, considering that they are vital spaces for the preservation of the resource.

Marine ecologist Margarita Brandt, from the USFQ, referred in her presentation to the impact of fishing on the communities of marine and coastal species and on the health of the oceans.

Brandt said that catches of 78 million tons are estimated at a global level per year, but remarked that between 11% and 26% is illegal, unreported or unregulated.

The increase in fishing has had a direct impact on biomass volumes, due to the decrease in the species caught, although he pointed out that the interaction between the different species should also be analyzed.

He also mentioned the impact on the sizes of the specimens, since fishing looks for the largest ones, which would have a long-term impact.

For his part, Ernesto Fernández, a legal specialist and activist to reduce harmful fishing subsidies, said he is hopeful that an agreement will be reached in the World Trade Organization (WTO) to prohibit harmful subsidies for fishing, because they make it easier to form large catching fleets that roam the oceans.

One in five fish is caught by illegal fishing, said Fernández, insisting that it is the harmful subsidies that allow foreign fleets to exceed the limits.

The specialist identified large fishing fleets from China, several European countries, Russia, Japan, South Korea and the United States and warned that in the WTO, where the prohibition of harmful subsidies for fishing is discussed, decisions are made by consensus, so that only one country could knock down an agreement in this regard.

“If all those countries assumed their commitments, then it would be easier to achieve an agreement to which they all submit” to those understandings, Fernández remarked.