CRY our Beloved Oceans…
Fish numbers on the brink of collapse are again highlighted by the WWF…and then we hear of Operation Phakisa which plans to grow the fishing industry in our bordering oceans of South Africa.
Mozambique has recently made the news and has now permitted fleets of Chinese fishing vessels to exploit its coastal waters while it also has placed a moratorium of prawn harvesting for numerous months. China admits its ocean resources are running low and is now looking at new areas which can be harvested. Conservationists are very concerned about the impact of overfishing and governments inability to control fishing regulations.
What more can I say? And how much of this is still “under wraps” and will never be explained or justified or published. Read on and CRY for our oceans…
Ocean fish numbers on 'brink of collapse' – WWF
Oslo - The amount of fish in the oceans has halved since 1970, in a plunge to the "brink of collapse" caused by over-fishing and other threats, the WWF conservation group said on Wednesday.
Populations of some commercial fish stocks, such as a group including tuna, mackerel and bonito, had fallen by almost 75%, according to a study by the WWF and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
The analysis said it tracked 5 829 populations of 1 234 species, such as seals, turtles and dolphins and sharks. It said the ZSL data sets were almost twice as large as past studies.
"This report suggests that billions of animals have been lost from the world's oceans in my lifetime alone," Ken Norris, director of science at the ZSL, said in a statement. "This is a terrible and dangerous legacy to leave to our grandchildren."
Later this month, governments are due to adopt new UN sustainable development goals, including ending over-fishing and destructive fishing practices by 2020 and restoring stocks "in the shortest time feasible".
Closing fishing grounds and cracking down on illegal fishing gives stocks a chance to recover, Lambertini said. Some grounds, such as those off Fiji, have been revived by stronger protection.
World marine fish catches dipped to 79.7 million tonnes in 2012 from 82.6 million in 2011, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Safeguarding the oceans can help economic growth, curb poverty and raise food security, it says.
See the link here.
Operation Phakisa
At the same time South Africa is in the process of mainstreaming its operation Phakisa, which sets out to unlock the economic potential of the country’s oceans.
At the launch President Jacob Zuma said the government chose the ocean economy with good reason. “South Africa is uniquely bordered by the ocean on three sides – east, south and west. With the inclusion of Prince Edward and Marion Islands in the southern ocean, the coastline is approximately 3 924km long,” he told the delegates at the launch of the initiative.
“The ocean has a potential to contribute to the GDP up to R177bn. The ocean also has a potential to contribute between eight hundred and one million direct jobs,” Zuma said.
South Africa’s oceans contributed around R54bn to the country’s GDP in 2010 and accounted for approximately 316 000 jobs.
See the link here.
Yu Yi celebrates its first foray into Mozambique
China’s fishing industry has celebrated the landing at a port in Shenzhen of its first haul of seafood caught in Mozambique.
The return to port of six vessels owned by the Yu Yi Industry Co. – carrying 359 tons of crustaceans and fish – was marked with a major ceremony overseen by corporate executives and Communist Party officials.
“We will reform our local industrial companies by expanding into new promising industries like distant-water fisheries,” he said at the ceremony, while admiring a line-up of grouper, lobster, and porgy from Mozambique.
Also at the ceremony, Yu Yi Chairman Zhang Zhiming said that with domestic catches falling in recent years, China’s fishing effort was best expended abroad.
“Offshore fishing resources are falling,” Zhang said. “Now is the time for us to expand.”
See the link here.
