Posted by: Saving Water SA (Cape Town, South Africa) - partnered with Water Rhapsody conservation systems – 08 June 2010

Around the world, governments are failing to prevent overfishing on the high seas. On World Ocean Day (June 8), WWF warns the plundering of the planet’s last great ecological frontier will have dire implications for food security and livelihoods for millions of people.

Cold water coral - Lophelia pertusa

The high seas, areas outside of national jurisdiction, account for over two-thirds of the world’s oceans and its rich biodiversity is as much under threat as within countries’ waters. Some 65 percent of straddling and high seas fish stocks are overfished and fragile cold water corals and sea mounts are bulldozed by indiscriminate fishing.

In many cases, legal fishing on the high seas fails to follow scientific advice while illegal fishers are looting with impunity, hauling up catches with an estimated value of $1.2 billion USD annually. Government subsidies are also a scourge, encouraging ever bigger fishing fleets chasing ever fewer fish. Subsidies prop up a bloated global fishing fleet 50 to 60 percent higher than it should be.

“It is high time that the high seas received more attention, and that countries take their responsibilities as the current stewards of this global commons seriously.” said Alistair Graham, High Seas Policy Advisor at WWF International. “Countries must ratify the Agreement on Port State Measures against illegal fishing and stop perverse subsidies that lead to ecosystem degradation.” Continue reading High seas fishing plunder