Fishing for a solution

Editor’s note: This story is part of a project spearheaded by GlobalPost’s Study
Abroad team and summer interns. They spent the summer learning about
the world’s endangered oceans and their work is displayed in this interactive graphic.

ABERDEEN, Scotland — James Steven has never faced a North Sea storm greater than the one that threatens to cast his boat ashore, along with every other skipper in the Scottish fishing industry.

The European Union estimates that 88 percent of its fishing waters have been nearly depleted. Oceans worldwide could experience a "global collapse" in fewer than 40 years, according to 12 international scientists who published their celebrated results in the journal Science.

So Steven and nearly 500 boats in the Scottish fleet voluntarily came ashore. They endured self-imposed quotas in 2006 while the rest of the European Union fished on. The quotas meant less income for most fishers, but if their bid proves successful, they will reap the benefits later. They hoped to let stocks of cod and other seafood repopulate and replenish.

"It was a painful recognition that we could not embark on suicide by ignoring biology," said Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. Scotland’s action comes as world governments from the United States to Indonesia grapple with their own struggling fisheries.

"We came together and realized we had to do something if we were to have a future," Steven said about the painful move.

In addition to over-zealous fishermen, the problem was exacerbated by bureaucratic EU policy on fishery management. In 1970, a Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) was created for all EU member states, but management was centralized in Brussels. The clunky policy employed a "one size fits all" solution to fishery management, whether the regulated industry was in the Greek archipelago or in Scotland’s North Sea.

A review April by the Commission of European Communities said that CFP needs "whole-scale and fundamental reform."

Cooperation with European fisheries suffered another setback Sept. 22, when EU member states failed to agree on a temporary ban on fishing of bluefin tuna, a Mediterranean fish prized for use in sushi and cans that is on the brink of collapse.

"You can’t have the same rules," said Louize Hill, Marine Policy Officer for World Wildlife Federation Scotland. The centralized policy prevents states from acting upon nuances in their local fisheries. "Every little line and dot — every detail is dictated by CFP."

But government and industry cooperation set Scotland apart from other nations, Hill said.

"We work in a very bottom-up, stakeholder-involved system," said Mike Park, executive chairman of the Scottish White Fish Producers’ Association (WFPA). "It’s a different beast. We’re not fighting with authority, but finding common interests." The WFPA represents 70 percent of the income generated by the Scottish fishing industry, and more than half of that by the United Kingdom.

The resulting policy launched in February 2008 is called the Scottish Conservation Credit Scheme. Fishermen identify concentrations of young fish, usually cod. The surrounding 50 square miles are closed for three weeks to allow the youngsters time to grow. In some areas — primarily where spawning cod call home — closures last the season, or sometimes as long as necessary.

As a reward for following the voluntary credit scheme, skippers are granted other days to fish by the government. Otherwise, they would have lost these days as part of their annual quota settlement.

Park said 5,000 young cod have been protected in nearly 150 closures since the management launch. It has received a "very positive social response."

New technology is important. Mesh nets are sized to allow undersized fish to escape, and langoustine nets are designed to catch shrimp but allow cod to swim free.

"On a broad and fleet-wide scale, Scotland is the only country that is so far forward," said Hill, of the World Wildlife Federation.

And like wives waiting patiently ashore, Scotland’s fishing industry waits for an ultimate solution to their fishing problem.

"I still don’t think we’ve done enough yet," said Steven. He advocates for seasonal allotments of "days at sea." One wasteful quota system — in which fish caught accidentally above limit are thrown back into the ocean dead — should be "scrapped," he said.

As the EU approaches a 2012 review deadline for CFP reform, Park looks for it to embrace a stakeholder-involved system.

"Without such devolution," says Richard Lochhead, the Scottish fisheries secretary, "I am skeptical that any major reform of the CFP will be forthcoming."

Where some communities have fished for centuries, the industry’s collapse would be catastrophic, said Armstrong, of the SFF. "It would mean the loss of an icon."

Scottish fishermen agree.

"I look at myself not just as a fisherman," Steven said of declining fish stocks. "I have a duty to get them back for future generations."

Learn more about the endangered oceans in an interactive graphic.

This report comes from a journalist in our Student Correspondent Corps, a GlobalPost project training the next generation of foreign correspondents while they study abroad.