The Rural Voice, 1998-09, Page 14WE WANT
YOUR GRAIN!
Elevator - Seaforth
519-527-1241
• Corn • Soys • Oats
• Western Grains
CASH & FORWARD CONTRACTS
Call us today for Quotes
Dave Gordon
Elizabeth Armstrong
Richard Smibert
Ian Carter
london agricultural commodities, inc.
1900 HYDE PARK ROAD
HYDE PARK, ONTARIO, N6H 5L9
519-473-9333
Toll -Free 1-800-265-1885
FARM
TIRES
Good selection of Duals
Large stock of all brands
of passenger,
truck & farm
tires
230 R1
On Farm Service'
Two fully equipped service trucks
Willits
Tire Service
Lucknow
519-528-2103
10 THE RURAL VOICE
Robert Mercer
The sea as a source of food
I live on the west coast of Canada
where fishing is as important to BC
as wheat is to Saskatchewan. Today,
fish are in almost worse condition
than the buffalo were on the U.S.
plains as settlers
tamed the land.
Exploitation of
the seas without
accountability
has left what
was once seen
(just like the
buffalo) as an
infinite bounty,
as another
environment
under threat by
human
pressures.
Over the past
month I have
been reading a
number of reports, books and articles
so that I might be able to discuss and
appreciate what is happening to the
coastal communities in BC. The
unpopular truth comes through that
"without reforming the underlying
causes of overfishing — namely
overcapacity and open access —
fisheries and fishers are doomed to a
desperate future."
How has this rape of the oceans
been allowed to happen? What is
being done and what should be done
is now in open debate on the west
coast. Agreement on anything
appears difficult because of
conflicting science, lack of good
information and data, massive
overlaps of bureaucratic legislation,
(international, federal, provincial,
state and municipal jurisdictions) and
the lack of co-ordinated methods of
policy enforcement.
The rape of the sea floor under the
economic pressures of reduced
catches amounts to wilful negligence.
Any farmer who rented land and did
to it what trawlers do to their "soil"
would see that farmer kicked off the
land forever. Trawling has been
compared to strip mining the land or
clear cutting in the forests, and its
extent is 50 times greater!
Trawlers as one example, are
extremely efficient but their owners
do not bear the full cost of thcir
exploitation of the seas by the
damage they do to the habitat of the
fish. There is no rent for the harvest
of the sea and no effort to repair the
common seabed. There is now the
"tragedy of the commons" where
over -use begets greater use without
regard for sustainable yields. In the
U.S., for instance, trawlers represent
only 0.14 per cent of the fishing fleet
numbers, yet they account for 21 per
cent of the catch tonnage.
Canada is trying to overcome the
twin problems of overcapacity of the
fleet and open access by buying back
vessels and closing down fishcrie in
an effort to rebuild fish stocks. Blit
without international co-operation it
is a political gesture that earns no
favours and resolves no long term
problems.
Throughout the 1970 - 80s
govemments subsidized fishing fleets
to the extent that size and technology
has made 53 per cent of the world's
fleet surplus to the size of the catch
(FAO). Direct government aid is
estimated at $21 billion worldwide,
one quarter of the value of the fish
caught. Fisheries subsidies have been
called the most environmentally
destructive natural resource program
of all. As of 1996 the FAO estimates
69 per cent of all world fishing areas
were in decline.
Over -fishing is a result of greater
unrestricted demand from people
wanting more protein foods. Of all
the fish caught, about one third gocs
to non-food uses such as animal feed.
The reported world fish catch
(including aquaculture) of close to
100 million metric tonnes masks the
problem of value since a greater
quantity of the catch is now lower -
value fish that would not have been
seen dead or alive on the plates of the
fish -eating public a few years ago.
Demand for fish results from too
many mouths to feed, especially as
two-thirds of the world's population
lives within 50 miles of the sea. To
feed these voters, governments have
allowed too much subsidy to buy too
many boats with too many nets and
with too many hooks.
In trying to understand the