Many of the world’s fish stocks are currently over-exploited and some, such as Canada’s Atlantic cod, have collapsed completely without much hope for renewal. There are many reasons why these stocks are in decline, however, there is one major factor that we have direct control over, yet fail to take action — government subsidies.
Photo courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons
The harmful effects of subsidizing fishing fleets is most apparent in deep sea fisheries, such as for the orange roughy pictured above. Deep sea fishing is costly and, therefore, the profit margins are often quite narrow. In fact, if it weren’t for government subsidies, many instances of deep sea overfishing would cease because it would simply be unprofitable. As Natasha over at the Overmatter blog points out:
One of the many depressing things about overfishing is the extent to which taxpayers fund it through subsidies to the industry.
You can read more at the Overmatter blog where author Natasha Loder posts stories from her job at the Economist in London that don’t make it into the magazine.