Sustainable Fish Industry

Manila 2011

Recalling that in 2009 the global consumption of fish reached a new all-time high, with the yearly per capita food fish supply rising to 17,2 kg and the fishing industry exceeding some 2,5 million engine-powered vessels, while at the same time the fish population was at an all-time low, with more than 50% of all stocks fully exploited, 30% overexploited or depleted and only 1% starting to recover ;

Noting that:

• modern-day fishing methods such as dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and ocean floor trawling are extremely destructive to sensitive marine habitats, in particular to fish breeding grounds like coral reefs;
• each year millions of tones of unwanted, untargeted marine animals are caught by indiscriminate fishing gear and are subsequently thrown back in the ocean, either dead or dying;
• annually as much as 25% of all fish is caught illegally, unreported and unregulated (IUU);
• government subsidies (notably by Japan, Russia, the US and the EU) have encouraged the creation of a fishing fleet that is two-and-a-half times larger than what the oceans can sustain;
• economically developed countries have, because of their large scale fishing industries, taken a far greater share of the revenues of the oceans than their less developed counterparts, whose fishing fleets tend to be smaller and less technologically advanced;
• because of its own set of problems, aquaculture has yet to provide a solution to overfishing;

Considering that all of the above mentioned issues seriously threaten marine habitats and species and also pose a serious danger to livelihoods of coastal communities and worldwide food security;

The Congress of Liberal International urgently calls upon its member parties and governments to install measures that allow marine populations to recover and therefore guarantee a sustainable form of fishery in the long-run, notably:

• the realization of scientific stock assessments;
• the creation of new Marine Protected Area’s (MPA’s) in the High Seas;
• the implementation of a temporary moratorium on bottom trawling on seabeds and deep-sea cold water corals;
• the protection of spawning grounds whilst fish are breeding;
• the abandonment of harmful fishing subsidies that contribute to excess fishing capacity;
• the development and implementation of policies that counter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing;
• the reduction of bycatch by implementing a stricter system of monitoring, the introduction of more selective gear and the abandonment of policies that create an incentive to only land the most valuable species and discard less valuable fish;
• the implementation of Fisheries Partnership Agreements that provide developing countries with a fair share of the fish resources;
• the minimization of problems related to aquaculture;