Too Many Boats, Too Few Fish

by Danielle Knight

A report, delivered to Congress by a government-appointed task force, said that fundamental changes were needed in several major U.S. subsidies programs that had created "excess capacity" -- too many fishing boats for dwindling stocks of fish.

Members of the Federal Fisheries Investment Task Force also highlighted the need for progress on international efforts to curtail fishing subsidies worldwide.

"One of the greatest concerns for the future of the world's oceans is the over-harvesting of marine resources," said Terry D. Garcia, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. "In many cases, fishing subsidies encourage too many boats to enter a fishery and can undermine conservation."

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated earlier this year that 70 percent of the world's most valuable fish stocks had been depleted -- or severely over-fished.

The report found that, while some subsidies in the United States had a negative impact on fish stocks, the U.S. subsidies represented only a fraction of payments made to foreign fishing fleets.

Citing a World Bank study, the report noted that annual fishing subsidies in the United States amounted to tens of millions of dollars while subsidies in Japan and the European Union (EU) ran to around $1 billion.

The EU was estimated to have paid more than $906 million to the fishing industry in 1997 and Japan was spending a minimum of $885 million each year U.S. subsidies averaged $25-$50 million per year, the report said.

"Our programs are considered modest compared to those of many of the world's fishing nations, but they need to be updated to ensure that they meet our mandates to build and maintain healthy fisheries and level the playing field for U.S. fishermen," said Penny Dalton, director of fisheries for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Because fishing subsidies came in a variety of forms -- with positive and negative impacts on fisheries -- cutting subsidies would be a complicated exercise, Dalton observed.

The high amount of subsidies paid to foreign fishing fleets, showed that the U.S. fishing industry was at a competitive disadvantage, said Justin LeBlanc, vice president of the National Fisheries Institute (NFI).

"Subsidies of this scale are destabilizing and anti-competitive and therefore U.S. fishermen have a direct interest in curbing U.S. subsidies programs and curtailing foreign subsidies," he said.

"Billions of dollars are spent worldwide each year on subsidies to the fishing industry, resulting in more pressure to fish when we need less," said Scott Burns, director of the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Endangered Sea Campaign.

"The federal task force confirms that it is time for governments to stop underwriting overfishing, both here in the United States and abroad," he said.

A recent WWF report found that the world's fishing fleets may be as much as two and-a-half times larger than needed to meet what would be considered a sustainable level of fishing.

The Task Force's report criticized the poor record keeping of U.S. subsidy payments and said that current data available publicly on subsidies did not allow a full understanding of how U.S. fishing subsidies have been used.

This understanding is crucial, said Burns and Dalton, because of the variety of subsidies come in a variety of forms, including everything from direct grants and loan guarantees to fuel credits and special social benefits for fishing communities.

Poor record-keeping was not only a U.S. problem, said David Schorr, head of the WWF's international subsidies reform initiative.

Last year, a study by the environmental group revealed that 90 percent of fishing subsidies worldwide were administered in violation of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules that required their public disclosure.

"In addition to being misdirected, these subsidies are often paid behind taxpayers' backs," said Schorr. "No one should be comfortable when billions in fishing subsidies are paid every year without mechanisms for proper accountability."

NFI and WWF jointly appealed for the United States to take the lead in improving data collection and increasing the transparency of fishing subsidies programs.

While voluntary efforts to cut subsidies were established through the FAO, little concrete action followed. In July, some of the world's largest fishing nations -- including Australia, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, the Philippines and the United States -- urged the WTO to intervene.

But the EU and Japan -- the heaviest subsidizers of fishing -- have been reluctant to agree.

The WTO has provided some controls on many types of subsides because it long considered that subsidies were potential barriers to free trade. Critics, however, branded these controls as weak, and said they did not sufficiently address harmful subsidies.

Environmentalists hoped to launch negotiations to eliminate the subsidies contributing to overcapacity when trade ministers meet in late November for the WTO's conference in Seattle, Washington.

"While the United States is ready to take important steps at home, it is time for the WTO to get serious about unfair fishing subsidies," said LeBlanc.