CCAN: Committee on Fisheries
As stated in the executive summary and background, the twenty-ninth session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States Nations is concerned with man's unstable relationship with the marine ecosystem. The session aims to establish precautions and approaches to help the oceans recover from our over-ambitious fishing practices. The meeting concluded with a list of recommendations: IPOA for sharks, port State measures (PSM) against IUU fishing, the draft guidelines on bycatch and discards, environmental assessments and marine protected areas, and the management of deep-sea fisheries in areas beyond national jurisdiction among other issues.
The recommendation section is a guideline for the abovementioned issues at the session. The title recommendation is not firm enough for many drastic changes. In the case of sharks, FOA members are encouraged to follow scientific management and the States' assessment of the shark populations before fishing; the same measures are encouraged for bycatch and other depleted fish populations. Information sharing is essential and supported for IUU fishing and the implementation of fishing reserves. The information that takes top priority for sharing is the effects of climate change and acidification and the steps toward richer biodiversity. In sum, it seems like there is a big disconnect between the fishing industry and the scientific agencies. For sustainability, the fishing industry must consult with science agencies first, and it is mostly not the industry's fault for the problems that occur with the oceans. Many of the recently discovered issues the science agencies must mitigate are on the recommendation page.
All the issues detailed among the recommendations are essential, and failing to fulfil one would take a heavy toll on our ecosystem, even if we succeed with the rest. When working with issues, I feel that there are two essential steps to reaching your goal: teamwork and scope. I believe that we have utilized the first step since we are meeting at a world assembly, and there are possibly more ways to make the meetings more efficient. Scope offers a different outlook on problem-solving and could make the meetings more productive. When prioritizing our issues, nations should focus on the smaller ones first, then work towards the more significant and difficult problems. Minor problems tend to be overlooked, linger around to a point where they evolve into monumental issues that should have been taken care of earlier. Eliminating the smaller items would alleviate the pressure of saving the ecosystem. In my opinion, sharks are the issue of the least concern at hand since it focuses on a single group, unlike the case of biodiversity and IUU fishing.
