stringbook

By Mort Rosenblum and Mar Cabra
January 25, 2012 

Jack mackerel, rich in oily protein, is manna to a hungry planet, a staple in Africa. Elsewhere, people eat it unaware; much of it is reduced to feed for aquaculture and pigs. It can take more than 5 kilos (11+ pounds) of jack mackerel to raise a single kilogram of farmed salmon.

Yet stocks have dropped from an estimated 30 million metric tons to less than 3 million in two decades … An eight-country investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists of the fishing industry in the southern Pacific shows why the plight of the jack mackerel foretells the progressive collapse of fish stocks in all oceans.

Their fate reflects a bigger picture: decades of unchecked global fishing pushed by geopolitical rivalry, greed, corruption, mismanagement and public indifference … The South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization was formed in 2006, at the initiative of Australia and New Zealand along with Chile, which often shuns international bodies.

Its purpose was to protect fish, particularly jack mackerel. But it took almost four years for 14 countries to adopt 45 interim articles aimed at doing that. Only six countries have ratified the agreement.

Meantime, industrial fleets bound only by voluntary restraints compete in what amounts to a free-for-all in no man’s water at the bottom of the world.

From 2006 through 2011, scientists estimate, jack mackerel stocks declined by 63 percent.