Pesca sostenible | Greenpeace Reino Unido

Decades of bad fishing practices have left our oceans in a tragic state. Many species which were once common-place are now threatened, dwindling to the point where there aren’t enough to catch and make a profit. Over 90% of predatory species like cod and tuna have already been caught and, according to the UN, 70% of fisheries are overfished.

Numbers of fish are dropping faster than they can reproduce and this is causing profound changes to life in our oceans. In reality, there aren’t plenty more fish in the sea.

La industria pesquera se ha vuelto de alta tecnología y los barcos gigantes utilizan el sonar para encontrar bancos de peces con una precisión milimétrica. Grandes redes capturan peces en grandes cantidades. Estos barcos también son fábricas flotantes, con plantas de procesamiento y empaque para manejar su captura de manera más eficiente. Todo esto significa que ahora hay capacidad para capturar muchas veces más peces de los que realmente quedan.

FUENTE: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/sustainable-fishing/

Captura incidental seleccionada descartada del arrastrero de aguas profundas 'Chang Xing' en aguas internacionales en el mar de Tasmania. Greenpeace junto con más de mil científicos están apoyando el llamado a una moratoria en la pesca de arrastre de fondo en alta mar, debido a la gran cantidad de vida marina que se destruye con este método de pesca.

La sobrepesca está vaciando los mares

A medida que las especies tradicionales desaparecen, otras especies son atacadas e incluso renombradas para hacerlas más atractivas. Por ejemplo, la austromerluza patagónica se reinventó como la lubina chilena de nombre más apetitoso. Las flotas también se están aventurando en aguas más distantes en el Ártico y Del Sur océanos para devastar las poblaciones de peces allí.

Los métodos de pesca utilizados por estos barcos suelen ser muy destructivos. Las redes de arrastre de fondo y de vara atraviesan el fondo marino para capturar peces planos como la merluza y el lenguado. Pero también aplastan todo a su paso, destruyendo frágiles arrecifes de coral. Y la mayoría de los métodos de pesca son muy indiscriminados, capturando muchas otras especies por accidente. Esta captura incidental incluye tortugas, tiburones, delfines y otros peces, que a menudo son arrojados muertos o moribundos al mar.

There’s a human cost too. Industrial fishing means small-scale fishers using more traditional methods are suffering. In the UK, smaller boats are finding it hard to make enough money and communities in many fishing ports are economically deprived. The number of fishers has also halved in the last 20 years. Elsewhere in the world, people who depend on fish for food and income are seeing their stocks disappear as foreign vessels trawl in their waters.

Cuotas de pesca injustas

La forma en que el gobierno del Reino Unido asigna las cuotas de pesca juega un papel importante en esto. Las cuotas se han concentrado en manos de un pequeño número de empresas multimillonarias. Solo cinco familias controlan casi un tercio de las cuotas de pesca del Reino Unido y más de dos tercios de las cuotas de pesca están controladas por solo 25 empresas. En comparación con las operaciones de pesca más pequeñas, estas grandes empresas emplean a menos personas, utilizan métodos de pesca menos sostenibles y menos dinero ingresa a las economías locales.

Nuestro gobierno ya tiene el poder de cambiar la forma en que distribuye las cuotas. Greenpeace está haciendo campaña por un sistema de asignación más justo que favorezca la pesca local y sostenible, lo que ayudará a crear puestos de trabajo y permitirá que las poblaciones de peces se recuperen.

We’re also taking on the corporate giants plundering our oceans. Thai Union, the biggest tuna company in the world and owner of John West, was turning a blind eye to appalling conditions for workers and destructive fishing practices. But then an outcry from thousands of people around the world forced Thai Union to clean up its operations.

Y necesitamos crear más áreas protegidas en el mar. Una red de santuarios oceánicos proporcionará refugios para que los peces y otras especies marinas prosperen lejos de la amenaza de las flotas pesqueras industriales. Con cambio climático creando otras amenazas para nuestros océanos, debemos brindarles toda la ayuda que podamos.

En imágenes: Pesca sostenible

An Indonesian crew member displays a turtle caught on the end of a bait line of a Korean longliner, the 'Shin Yung 51'. The location is within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Kiribati. Sharks, turtles, dolphins and albatrosses can often end up as unfortunate by-catch of longline fishing. Greenpeace are on the Pacific Leg of the 'Defending Our Oceans' global expedition. They are calling for an immediate end to pirate fishing, a 50% reduction in the amount of Pacific tuna caught, and a global network of Marine Reserves. Yellow Fin and Big Eye tuna stocks in the Central and Western Pacific are destined to be critically over-fished within three years if the relentless fishing of the two Tuna species continues at current rates. © Greenpeace / Alex Hofford
A Vietnamese crew member releases a shark back into the ocean which was caught on the end of a bait line of a Korean longliner, the 'Shin Yung 51'. whilst fishing for tuna. The location is within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Kiribati. Sharks, turtles, dolphins and albatrosses can often end up as unfortunate by-catch of long-line fishing. Yellow Fin and Big Eye tuna stocks in the Central and Western Pacific are now drastically low due to pirate fishing and the over fishing of stocks by foreign, industrial nations. Local fishermen struggle to compete in these waters as sophisticated fishing equipment puts them out of business. Greenpeace are calling for an immediate end to pirate fishing, a 50% reduction in the amount of Pacific tuna caught, and a global network of Marine Reserves to tackle the problem of over fishing. © Greenpeace / Alex Hofford
Selected bycatch discarded from the deep sea trawler 'Chang Xing' in international waters in the Tasman Sea. Greenpeace along with more than a thousand scientists are supporting the call for a moratorium on high seas bottom trawling, because of the vast amount of marine life that is destroyed by this fishing method. © Greenpeace / Roger Grace
Tururuko, head of the local fishermen, directs the crew every day during fishing activities in Pemba, Quirimbas, northern Mozambique. © Francisco Rivotti
A team from the Greenpeace ship MV Esperanza documents discarded bycatch on the deck of a Spanish flagged bottom-trawler, the Ivan Nores, in the Hatton Bank area of the North Atlantic, 410 miles north-west of Ireland. Bottom-trawling boats, the majority from EU countries, drag fishing gear weighing several tonnes across the sea bed, destroying marine wildlife and devastating life on underwater mountains - or 'seamounts'. © Greenpeace / Kate Davison
Schools of fish circle a fish aggregating device (FAD) in the Western Pacific Ocean. Around 10% of the catch generated by purse seine FAD fisheries is unwanted bycatch and includes endangered species of sharks and turtles. The catch of large amounts of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tunas in these fisheries is now threatening the survival of these commercially valuable species. Greenpeace is calling for a total ban on the use of fish aggregation devices in purse seining and the establishment of a global network of marine reserves. © Paul Hilton / Greenpeace
Shamus Nicholls on his boat "Little Lauren" catching bass with a handliner. He is one of the fishermen that support sustainable fishing in small scale boats. © David Sandison / Greenpeace
Fishermen use pole and line fishing method to catch skipjack tuna. Pole and line fishing is a selective and therefore more sustainable way to catch tuna as only fish of a certain size are caught, leaving juveniles to grow to spawning age and replenish the stock in the future. Small bait fish are thrown over the side of the boat to lure the tuna to the water surface. The fishermen use the acceleration of the fish as they race to get their prey, hook them and fling them onto the ship's flat deck. © Greenpeace / Paul Hilton
Spanish Albatun Tres is 115 mt long and is the world’s largest tuna purse seiner. Vessels such as this travel from one fish aggregation device (FAD) to another and spread their huge nets to catch everything swimming around the FAD. Around 10% of the catch generated by purse seine FAD fisheries is unwanted bycatch and includes endangered species of sharks and turtles. The catch of large amounts of juvenile bigeye and yellowfin tunas in these fisheries is now threatening the survival of these commercially valuable species. Greenpeace is calling for a total ban on the use of fish aggregation devices in purse seining and the establishment of a global network of marine reserves. © Paul Hilton / Greenpeace
The fishermen pull the skipjack tuna fish onto the boat in Flores sea, East Nusa Tenggara. The fishermen in Larantuka are famous for using sustainable methods, pole and line, on fishing tuna. Pole and line fishing is a traditional method of fishing, unchanged for generations, and often used by local fishers in coastal communities, using live bait, the fishing targets surface schooling skipjack. © Jurnasyanto Sukarno / Greenpeace

FUENTE: https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/challenges/sustainable-fishing/