Fish piracy – seafood caught illegally, not reported to authorities or outside environmental and catch regulations – represents as much as $10 billion to $23 billion in global losses each year, a non-profit conservation group estimated Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Because pirated fish is sold on black markets, specifics of the economic impact are tough to decipher. But Oceana, a Washington-based organization, looked at the records of fish catches by country as reported to the United Nations, then compared those statistics to seafood sales in various world markets.<\/p>\n
When these numbers didn’t match up, the group estimated the amount lost through fish piracy, a practice that U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco has called “one of the most serious threats to American fishing jobs and fishing communities.”<\/p>\n
The report said illegal trade could account for 11 million to 25 million metric tons of seafood, a minimum of 20 percent of seafood worldwide.<\/p>\n
Illegal fishing targets some of the most expensive species, including shrimp, fugu pufferfish, lobster, whole abalone and sea urchin uni. Penalties are often a fraction of potential profit, the report found. In one U.S. case, an illegal catch worth up to $1 million brought a $3,5000 penalty.<\/p>\n
The report estimated that illegal trade threatens 260 million jobs dependant on marine fisheries.<\/p>\n
For example, the shark fin trade in Hong Kong suggests that three to four times more sharks are being killed than official reports say, with $292 million to $476 worth of shark fins sold.<\/p>\n
Oceana said that Florida law enforcement agents’ estimates showed that one illegal operator stole $1,400 a week from legal operators by exceeding the catch limit on king mackerel.<\/p>\n
Fishermen who comply with legal standards can also lose business when they sell in the same market as illegal operators who don’t follow environmental or sanitary standards, the report found.<\/p>\n
In addition, adults and children have been trafficked into service on illegal fishing ships, making a catch more lucrative, the report said.<\/p>\n
STEALING FISH<\/p>\n
Illegally caught Russian sockeye salmon is estimated to be 60 percent to 90 percent above reported levels, a loss of $40 million to $74 million, according to Oceana.<\/p>\n
Annual black market sales of bluefin tuna may reach $4 billion, with the amount of illegally caught fish five to 10 times higher than the official catch, the report said.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think people think of fish as valuable, and when they think of crime, I don’t think they think about seafood,” Oceana senior scientist Margot Stiles said in a telephone interview. “But behind closed doors and out at sea, there’s all this money made by stealing fish.”<\/p>\n
In the past, governments have stepped up enforcement to combat the problem, but that approach was limited.<\/p>\n
Stiles suggested a two-part solution: first, cut back government fishing subsidies, which ultimately pay for some of the illegal catch, and increase seafood tracking from its source to the consumer.<\/p>\n
Using the same technology as in the package delivery industry, some large seafood dealers, markets and restaurants are already tracking fish.<\/p>\n
MJ Gimbar, chief fishmonger at Black Salt Fish Market in Washington, said his company’s program is inexpensive to implement and offers customers assurances about what they are buying: “It allows them to put a face with the fish.”<\/p>\n
The market’s website offers species-specific information on the sources of its seafood, at Http:\/\/www.blackrestaurantgroup.com\/eco-practices\/by-sea\/ .<\/p>\n
Oceana reported in February that one-third of seafood tested in the United States was mislabeled, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines.<\/p>\n
2013 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":25810,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[177],"tags":[391,2142],"region":[26],"source":[353],"country":[],"state":[],"city":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/37867"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newss"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newss\/37867\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37867"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=37867"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=37867"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=37867"},{"taxonomy":"state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/state?post=37867"},{"taxonomy":"city","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icsf.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/city?post=37867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}