THE BIGGEST ocean-bottom trawlers are China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Argentina, in that order. China trawls 4.1 million tons of sea life a year; the rest trawl 2 million tons on average.
China may be trawling the bottom of the Philippines’ waters, besides conducting massive commercial-fishing operations and blocking Filipino fishermen from reaching their usual fishing grounds.
Overfishing is endangering our oceans; large fishing fleets use huge purse nets to get tons of fish at a time, then throw away unwanted species, wasting marine life. Uncontrolled overfishing can inadvertently lead to various species of fish to become nearly extinct.
Overfishing in the North Atlantic drove the cod to the brink of extinction and the near end of the United Kingdom’s national favorite dish — fish and chips. Tight restrictions on fishing quotas saved the cod from extinction.
Now, experts say the Atlantic bluefin tuna, sawfish, and various shark and ray species are on the edge of extinction due to overfishing. Extracting too many fish of one species disrupts the recovery of fish stocks. Overfishing depletes populations, driving species to the brink of extinction. The livelihood of hundreds of thousands of poor people who depend on fishing is endangered and a lack of high-protein food will result from it.
The Philippine fishing industry is threatened by dynamite fishing, the use of gill nets and traps, and spearfishing with “scuba” or “hookah” using an air compressor. These cause serious damage to coral reefs, the breeding places of fish. The practice of using groups of boys to go down to coral reefs and beat them to drive fish into nets is called “pa-aling” or “muro-ami.” This illegal method using child labor to deplete marine resources should be banned outright.
Microplastic pollution, unregulated fishing, bottom trawling, blast fishing and oil spills are some of the many issues that the United Nations-sponsored High Seas Treaty, now in its final stages after 20 years of negotiations, hopes to solve.
One measure is to create special marine protected areas. The treaty, which was signed in 2023 and needs to be ratified by 60 nations, will protect these vast areas of ocean from the dangers mentioned.
The ocean summit this past week, held in Nice, France, saw UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres telling 60 world leaders that nations must move from “plunder to protection” in order to save the seas.
The US did not attend this gathering, as President Donald Trump intends to mine the ocean floor anywhere in the world for rare minerals. The UN chief said there must be “bold pledges” made by nations and greater governance of the high seas and the issue of plastic pollution, overfishing and environmental destruction must be addressed by the rule of law. He received a standing ovation./PN
