Illegal fishing: A global problem, but not one the US Navy can solve

Mark J. Valencia says a recent proposal to treat illegal fishing as a global threat which the US Navy must address is not just impractical, but also creates suspicion and adds to the risk of war

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Dead sharks are found in a ship’s hold, at sea, off the coast of Com in East Timor, in this undated photo made available by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on September 15. The environmental protection group said it led East Timor police to a Chinese-owned fishing fleet with an allegedly illegal cargo of sharks. China’s boats do contribute significantly to illegal fishing but – at least from China’s perspective – not in Southeast Asian countries’ claimed waters in the South China Sea. Photo: EPA-EFE / Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Published: 12:55pm, 20 Sep 2017Updated: 6:54pm, 20 Sep 2017

According to James G. Stavridis, 16th supreme commander of Nato and current dean of Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, US fisheries law enforcement should be militarised. He and co-author Johan Bergenas, in a recent opinion piece in The Washington Post, argue in support of a provision in the pending US National Defence Authorisation Act that requests the US Navy help fight illegal fishing. This is a flawed and blinkered proposal.

Stavridis and Bergenas say the rapid decline of fish stocks around the world is an “existential threat to roughly a billion people” and conclude that “fish scarcity could be the next catalyst” for a war over natural resources. This is not just hyperbole; militarising fisheries law enforcement increases the likelihood of military clashes, particularly as other countries follow the US lead.

Yes, many fisheries around the world, particularly in the South China Sea, are overfished and under threat from illegal fishing. The article implies that Chinese fishing boats are the world’s main illegal fishers. Indeed, they allege that “the Chinese government is directly enabling and [militarising] the worldwide robbing of ocean resources”. China’s boats do contribute significantly to illegal fishing but – at least from China’s perspective – not in Southeast Asian countries’ claimed waters in the South China Sea.

Inhabitants of Santa Cruz Island in Galapagos, Ecuador, take to the streets to protest against illegal fishing around the islands on August 14, after the Ecuadorian Navy reported that it caught a Chinese vessel with about 300 tonnes of fish, including at least two species of shark considered vulnerable. Photo: AFP

In April, Indonesia announced that 317 fishing boats had been confiscated and destroyed since President Joko Widodo took office in October 2014. Of this, 142 were from Vietnam, 76 from the Philippines and 49 from Malaysia. Only one was from China.

Despite the media hyperbole regarding the transgression of China’s oil rig into Vietnam’s claimed waters and the Natuna incident in which a Chinese coast guard vessel intervened in an Indonesian arrest of its fishing vessels for violating Indonesia’s laws, these were isolated incidents.