Are there enough fish for the people?

Time was when fish was truly the poor man’s affordable protein. This situation has changed drastically in the recent past and there are clear indications that the situation is worsening rather than improving. This is the consequence of a vigorous population growth, the continued deterioration of natural aquatic environments, and over-fishing in many parts of the world, especially in the Philippines. And it is not natural disasters like tsunamis and typhoons that are the principal causes of the degradation of our natural ecosystems but man, who has evolved from just one of many species on this planet to become a technological, "geological agent," capable of altering the natural characteristics of our planet.

But after having mentioned tsunamis, let me call your attention to the advice of one of the world’s renowned fisheries scientists, Dr. Daniel Pauly, formerly with the World Fish Center (known to many Filipinos as ICLARM or the International Center for Living Aquatic Resource Management) and who is now a faculty member of the University of British Columbia. I was recently in Newcastle, England for a meeting about a new project on coral reef restoration in which I am involved. Having arrived there a couple of days early from an earlier meeting in Rome on a parallel project, I decided to spend one afternoon in the library of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, since our local libraries are so lacking in scientific journals. While in that modern, fully equipped library, I picked up the current issue of the weekly science journal Nature (Feb. 3, 2005) and read a letter of Dr. Pauly to the editor. He was reacting to an article in the journal about the recent tsunami that has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives. That article entitled "Scientists seek action to fix Asia’s ravaged ecosystems" highlighted the frenzy among donor-countries to get started immediately to reverse the devastation of the tsunami that did extensive damage to coastal ecosystems. In addition to the call on scientists to take measures that will contribute to the rehabilitation of "ravaged ecosystems," the article pointed to the need to rebuild the decimated fishing fleets in the countries most directly affected by the natural disaster. This is the normal mindset of the investor-countries that fail to see the broader issues about the present condition of marine and coastal ecosystems.

Dr. Pauly’s letter was captioned "Rebuilding fisheries will add to Asia’s problems: Overfishing has already caused depletion and conflict. Instead, train people for new jobs." In effect, he answered the question of the title of this article. His letter ends with the exhortation to amend the old adage that went: "If you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. If you teach him how to fish, he will eat for the rest of his life." He pointed out that since this no longer holds, it should now be amended to teaching man "to repair bikes, sewing machines and water pumps." Basically his message is the need to train the displaced fishers to do land-based jobs instead of letting them go back to sea to fish and contribute to the further decline of fisheries stocks. There just are not enough fish left for all the mouths to feed!

His message is at least 10 years old. In 1995, Population Action International, a US-based NGO, produced a poster with the title "Catching the Limit: Population and the Decline of Fisheries," which outlined some of the pessimistic statistics in fisheries. The global fish catch peaked in 1989 at 89 million metric tons (mmt) and hovered around 85 mmt. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), then already estimated that nearly 70 percent of the world’s conventional fish species were already "fully exploited, overexploited, or rebuilding from past over-fishing – in other words, fished up to or beyond natural limits." In many parts of the world, fishers were catching less fish than they once did, a situation one sees in virtually all coastal villages in the Philippines.

What is alarming is that with the human population continually growing, there is less fish available on a per capita basis, and this is most true in our country. Because of the rising demand for fish and fishery products globally, the price of fish is becoming prohibitive to more and more poor people (if not to the middle class), for whom fish is the major source of animal protein. What this means for future generations of Filipinos is malnutrition, resulting in decreased brain capacity, particularly among the poor who are thus condemned to servitude and menial tasks. As more than one writer has pointed out, we seem to be unwittingly raising more and more Filipinos who are most suited to wiping the bottoms of foreigners, whether at home or abroad. The poster I mentioned points out that in 1990, our per capita consumption of fish for food was 36.5 kg, a level that was significantly higher than fish consumption in many developed countries. However, it is projected that by the middle of this century, the fish consumption may drop to 21 kg, 17 kg and 14 kg per capita, respectively, depending on the low, medium, or high projection scenarios of population growth in the country.

Since my work is related to coral reefs, one may ask: what is the connection between reefs and fish? In many of our coastal areas, the relation is direct. Healthy reefs can support 15 to 30 metric tons of fish per square kilometer, while bombed reefs would support only two to five metric tons. Who bombs the reefs? The greedy and the desperate. What is the relation to the population? Since there is a growing demand for fish, the greedy fishers often use illegal and destructive methods for fishing, thus degrading the coral reef ecosystem. The desperate fishers become guilty of what Dr. Pauly refers to as Malthusian over-fishing. With so many people to feed, many coastal fishers become desperate to have fish for the next meal that they often bomb or dynamite the reefs they have access to since traditional methods are often inadequate for catching enough fish for a family for the day.

Others may say that we can solve the problem with aquaculture. While it is true that aquaculture is showing a strong growth, it is also certain that it is slowly degrading natural ecosystems, thus aggravating the plight of poor coastal fishers. The public has been made aware many times about spectacular mass fish kills in coastal towns like Bolinao and Binmaley in Pangasinan. But one has to witness a municipal beach carpeted with rotting bangus to truly appreciate what can happen with aquaculture. Culturing fish is not a quick fix to a serious problem that is on the rise. It should contribute to the solution but too often it adds to the problem.

It is high time that government officials and church leaders alike acknowledge the fact that this planet has a limited carrying capacity, not just individual ecosystems. Even with the best social systems, the problem of reaching the limits of the natural carrying capacity is not going to go away unless we take serious and immediate steps to curb our runaway population growth.

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Edgardo D. Gomez obtained his Ph.D. in Marine Biology from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego. He was the founding director of the UP Marine Science Institute, Diliman, Quezon City for 25 years. He is a UP professor (Marine Biology), NAST academician and board member of several local and international organizations on coral reef management. He has been the recipient of numerous awards for his accomplishments as science administrator, and for his pioneering work on the culture of giant clams, coral reef ecology and management. Send queries and comments on this article to [email protected].