Pesca sostenibile | Greenpeace UK

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.

L'industria della pesca è diventata high-tech e le navi giganti usano il sonar per trovare banchi di pesce con la massima precisione. Enormi reti catturano pesci in gran numero. Queste navi sono anche fabbriche galleggianti, con impianti di lavorazione e confezionamento per gestire il pescato in modo più efficiente. Tutto ciò significa che ora c'è la capacità di catturare molte volte più pesce di quanto ne sia effettivamente rimasto.

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

Catture accessorie selezionate scartate dal peschereccio d'altura "Chang Xing" nelle acque internazionali del Mar di Tasman. Greenpeace insieme a più di mille scienziati stanno sostenendo la richiesta di una moratoria sulla pesca a strascico in alto mare, a causa della grande quantità di vita marina che viene distrutta da questo metodo di pesca.

La pesca eccessiva sta svuotando i mari

Man mano che le specie tradizionali scompaiono, altre specie vengono prese di mira e persino rinominate per renderle più attraenti. Ad esempio, l'austromerluzzo è stato reinventato come il branzino cileno dal nome più appetitoso. Le flotte si stanno anche avventurando in acque più lontane nel artico e Meridionale oceani per devastare le popolazioni ittiche lì.

I metodi di pesca utilizzati da queste navi sono spesso molto distruttivi. La pesca a strascico e la pesca a strascico trascinano le reti sul fondo del mare per catturare pesci piatti come naselli e sogliole. Ma distruggono anche tutto ciò che incontrano, distruggendo le fragili barriere coralline. E la maggior parte dei metodi di pesca sono molto indiscriminati, catturando molte altre specie per caso. Questa cattura accessoria include tartarughe, squali, delfini e altri pesci, che spesso vengono ributtati in mare morti o morenti.

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.

Quote di pesca sleali

Il modo in cui il governo del Regno Unito assegna le quote di pesca gioca un ruolo importante in questo. Le quote si sono concentrate nelle mani di un piccolo numero di società multimilionarie. Solo cinque famiglie controllano quasi un terzo delle quote di pesca del Regno Unito e più di due terzi delle quote di pesca sono controllate da sole 25 società. Rispetto alle operazioni di pesca più piccole, queste grandi aziende impiegano meno persone, utilizzano metodi di pesca meno sostenibili e meno denaro si fa strada nelle economie locali.

Il nostro governo ha già il potere di cambiare il modo in cui distribuisce le quote. Greenpeace sta conducendo una campagna per un sistema di assegnazione più equo che favorisca la pesca locale e sostenibile, che contribuirà a creare posti di lavoro e consentirà agli stock ittici di ricostituirsi.

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.

E dobbiamo creare più aree protette in mare. Una rete di santuari oceanici fornirà rifugi per pesci e altra vita marina per prosperare lontano dalla minaccia delle flotte di pesca industriale. Insieme a cambiamento climatico creando altre minacce ai nostri oceani, dobbiamo dare loro tutto l'aiuto possibile.

In foto: pesca sostenibile

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

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