Fish and reefs under siege as feuding South China Sea claimants refuse to cooperate
Marine resources have been fished down to 5 per cent to 30 per cent of their 1950 levels, study finds
Tensions among China and Southeast Asian countries with territorial claims in the South China Sea are creating a conservation vacuum and taking a heavy toll on the ecology of an area known for its biodiversity, conservationists warn.
They say the hostility harboured by rival claimants, and the resultant lack of intergovernmental cooperation, has prevented any meaningful projects to combat illegal fishing, the over exploitation of fisheries, poaching of sea creatures and destruction of coral reefs.
Any time one claimant tries to implement a fishery regulation, the other claimants are obliged to protest it
“Much of the South China Sea is basically a ‘free-for-all’ [area] in terms of fishing ... fishers of all countries in the area are heavily involved in IUU activities,” said Dr Michael Fabinyi, a senior research fellow at University of Technology Sydney, who has studied the use of marine resources.
Destructive fishing practices – including bottom trawling, dynamiting and using cyanide to catch fish – were widely used in the area, severely damaging marine habitats and coral reefs, the Canadian study said. Overfishing and habitat destruction had directly contributed to a reduction in biodiversity, with marine megafauna such as dugongs, formerly abundant along the coasts of Malaysia and southern China, now rarely found.
