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Commercial Fishing "Unsustainable" Says New UN Report

March 30, 2005 - By Sea Turtle Restoration Project

 FOREST KNOLLS, CA - The United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
Synthesis Report released today calls capture fisheries "unsustainable" and
calls for the expansion in Marine Protected Areas with flexible no-take
zones that contribute to the economy. These conclusions echo the efforts of
3 nations, more than 800 scientists from 83 countries and 230
non-governmental organizations from 54 countries calling on the UN to
implement a moratorium on industrial longline fishing in the Pacific and
implement a network of high seas MPAs to protect both fish stocks and
species endangered by longlines.

"The call to implement a moratorium on industrial longlining and create a
network of high seas MPAs in the Pacific resonates with the new UN report.
High seas MPAs would both protect fisheries relied on by coastal communities
for food while contributing to ustainable development," says Robert Ovetz,
PhD, coordinator of the Save the Leatherback Campaign.

 "Current patterns of use of capture fisheries are unsustainable," the UN
report suggests. "Humans increased the capture of marine fish up until the
1980s by harvesting an ever-growing fraction of the available resource.
Marine fish landings are now declining as a result of the overexploitation
of this resource (C18.ES)." (p. 172)

This conclusion echoes new concerns by the US government that longline
caught bigeye and albacore tuna are overfished in the Pacific. Southern blue
fin tuna is already considered critically endangered by the World
Conservation Congress. Recent reports in the scientific journal Nature and
another to be published soon in the journal Ecology have also warned that
billfish and shark populations have declined by about 90 percent in the
Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific since the 1950s.

 Billfish and sharks as well as endangered sea turtles, seabirds, marine
mammals and even tuna and swordfish are caught and killed by longlines as so
called bycatch. A recent study by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project found
that 4.4 million of these species are caught and killed in the Pacific each
year.

 In Hawai'i, which the report singles out for attention, "the annual
recreational value of the coral reefs of each of six Marine Management Areas
in the Hawaiian Islands in 2003 ranged from $300,000 to $35 million." (p.
91) In contrast, industrial longline fishing in Hawai'i generates about $55
million while recreational fishing trip-related expenditures that were
estimated to range from $130-$347 million overall in 1995-1996.

The UN report also contrasts the contribution of marine fisheries to the
economy, with a global value of $80 billion, compared to saltwater
recreational fishing, worth about $30.5 billion annually in the US alone.
The spin-off effects due to hotel occupancy, tours, services and
transportation result in vastly more economic benefits for coastal
communities than industrial fishing.

 Longline Moratorium Resources:

 Interviews with leading scientists are available Review copy of the
documentary "Last Journey for the Leatherback?" is available upon request
B-roll video footage is available upon request Download the UN report at:

www.millenniumassessment.org/Public/Login.aspx?Heading=&ReturnURL=/public/Me
diaAccount.aspx
Press packet is available upon request The Sea Turtle Restoration Project is
a California-based marine conservation organization that works to protect
sea turtles and other marine species in the United States and in countries
around the world. For more information about sea turtles and the Sea Turtle
Restoration Project, please visit:
www.seaturtles.org and www.savetheleatherback.com.