THE FISHING WARS
BY FR SHAY CULLEN
BY FR SHAY CULLEN
Last week, a Taiwanese fisherman died when a Philippine Coast Guard patrol boat open-fired after one of the four Taiwanese fishing vessels reportedly tried to ram the coast guard vessel. The incident occurred 43 nautical miles east of Balintang Island, in the West Philippine Sea, well inside the 200 mile limit.
Recently, the Chinese government sent a fleet of 30 fishing boats to the hotly disputed area around the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea which it claims as its territory. Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines reject these claims. The area is rich in marine life and possibly, oil and natural gas. The Philippines has made a formal complaint under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and a UN tribunal will examine and rule on the complaint. China is very annoyed about that.
The Fishing Wars are beginning to heat up. It is not only oil and gas that are being contsted. Fish are needed to feed the growing world population, now at seven billion, estimated to reach nine billion by 2050. How to feed them all is the big question. The imbalance of resource allocation leaves one billion people, mostly children, hungry every day and several more billions struggling to survive on two dollars a day, some on even less. It’s not a fair just world.
The planet's resource of fish is among the most prized. Many think it is free and there for the catching, but how wrong they are. The fish stocks are being decimated by destructive wasteful over-fishing and ocean pollution and will not be there much longer.
As I write this, I am looking online at a digital population clock that is running like a slot machine spinning its numbers non-stop (http://countrymeters.info/en/World). As I watch, the number of new births is rapidly increasing, dozens by the seconds. The death rate is not keeping pace. Modern medicine keeps the old alive longer. The biggest population growth is in Asia and the Southern hemisphere, China is the most populous (1.3 billion) and is aggressively expanding its power and sending fishing fleets into the seas and disputed waters to supply fish to feed all these people.
Recently, the Chinese government sent a fleet of 30 fishing boats to the hotly disputed area around the Spratly Islands in the West Philippine Sea which it claims as its territory. Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines reject these claims. The area is rich in marine life and possibly, oil and natural gas. The Philippines has made a formal complaint under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and a UN tribunal will examine and rule on the complaint. China is very annoyed about that.
The Fishing Wars are beginning to heat up. It is not only oil and gas that are being contsted. Fish are needed to feed the growing world population, now at seven billion, estimated to reach nine billion by 2050. How to feed them all is the big question. The imbalance of resource allocation leaves one billion people, mostly children, hungry every day and several more billions struggling to survive on two dollars a day, some on even less. It’s not a fair just world.
The planet's resource of fish is among the most prized. Many think it is free and there for the catching, but how wrong they are. The fish stocks are being decimated by destructive wasteful over-fishing and ocean pollution and will not be there much longer.
As I write this, I am looking online at a digital population clock that is running like a slot machine spinning its numbers non-stop (http://countrymeters.info/en/World). As I watch, the number of new births is rapidly increasing, dozens by the seconds. The death rate is not keeping pace. Modern medicine keeps the old alive longer. The biggest population growth is in Asia and the Southern hemisphere, China is the most populous (1.3 billion) and is aggressively expanding its power and sending fishing fleets into the seas and disputed waters to supply fish to feed all these people.
China and Peru are the biggest fishing nations followed by the USA and Japan. China eats most of what their ships catch. Peru is the next biggest fishing nation but consumes hardly any and exports most to Japan. Russia sends factory ships to the Pacific to harvest millions of tons of fish. The Philippines is number ten on the list of fishing nations and consumess most of its catch. In Europe, Scotland and Spain have perhaps the biggest fleets of the North Atlantic where fish stocks are collapsing. But bans on catching certain fish species are helping the fish to recover.
The planet as it is now is being misused, exploited, and over-heated and may not be able to sustain such a huge population. This week, the planet has reached the highest level of CO2 gas in the atmosphere in more than three million years and the planet was hot. A report published last week says huge declines in the plants and animals will be devastating as world temperatures continue to rise. The poorer developing countries will be the hardest hit, as of now, world food supplies are at their lowest level in 40 years. Several nations are leasing land in developing countries by millions of hectares to grow food, not for the hungry local populations but to feed their own.
Some scientists and biologists predict that the oceans could be without fish in 25 years. The over-fishing is killing the oceans as a source of healthy protein. The United Nations report (SOFIA) on the state of the world's fisheries and aquaculture has established that as much as 80% of the oceans’ fishing grounds are fully- or over-exploited and on the edge of being depleted, which eans they are in a state of collapse and will reach a tipping point when there are not enough fish left to breed and replenish themselves. Some species are already extinct or nearly so. North Atlantic herring are on the edge of extinction from non-stop fishing. Cod is endangered because cod feeds on herring and it too is over-fished. A series of 'Cod Wars' erupted in the 1950s and 1970s and almost turned violent when Iceland banned cod fishing within 100 kilometers of its coast. The cod are slowly recovering. Strict controls on the amount that can be landed must be enforced. We humans have to act now to save the oceans and their fish before a full collapse of most species occurs. Soon it will be all over and unhealthy chemical-based fish farming is all that will be left. shaycullen@preda.org
(Fr Shay’s columns are published in The Manila Times, in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and online.)
Need Help, Contact: predainfo@preda.org (please do not send email to predair@info.com.ph and/or preda@info.com.ph as these email addresses are no longer the official email addresses of Preda)
Mailing address: PREDA Foundation, Inc., PO Box 68, 2200 Olongapo City.
(Fr Shay’s columns are published in The Manila Times, in publications in Ireland, the UK, Hong Kong, and online.)
Need Help, Contact: predainfo@preda.org (please do not send email to predair@info.com.ph and/or preda@info.com.ph as these email addresses are no longer the official email addresses of Preda)
Mailing address: PREDA Foundation, Inc., PO Box 68, 2200 Olongapo City.
Physical address: Preda Main Center, Upper Kalaklan, Subic Bay, 2200 Olongapo City, Philippines
E-mail: shaycullen@preda.org, emmanueldrewery@preda.org
E-mail: shaycullen@preda.org, emmanueldrewery@preda.org
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