When fish run short, countries have sent warships over cod and halibut
In March 1995 Canadian officials boarded and seized a Spanish trawler in international waters off Newfoundland, and Spain sent navy patrol ships to guard its fishing boats. The standoff, nicknamed the Turbot War, was settled within weeks. It showed how fiercely nations will fight over fish once the catch starts shrinking.
Fishing is far more than boats and nets. The industry covers catching, farming, processing, storing, shipping and selling fish, and it directly or indirectly supports over 500 million people in developing countries. Fisheries supply roughly 16 per cent of the protein the world eats. Byproducts reach unexpected places: isinglass from fish clears wine and beer, fish glue binds all sorts of goods, cuttlefish ink gave artists the pigment sepia, and marine snails once yielded Tyrian purple.
The global wild catch grew through the twentieth century and levelled off by 1986 at around 85 to 95 million tonnes a year, peaking about the end of the century before a slow decline. Researchers estimate that somewhere between about one and 2.7 trillion wild fish are caught each year. The health of stocks has slipped badly: in 1974, 90 per cent of fished stocks were within biologically sustainable limits, but by 2021 that figure had fallen to 62.3 per cent.
Shrinking catches breed conflict. Chile and Peru were the first to claim a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, in 1947, an idea the United Nations formally adopted in 1982. When Iceland extended its fishing zone in 1972 to curb overfishing, it sparked the Cod Wars, with Icelandic patrol boats confronting British warships. The Turbot War followed the 1992 collapse of the northwest Atlantic cod fishery, and its settlement led to major reforms of international fishing agreements.
Overfishing is expensive too. One report estimated it costs European Union fisheries 3.2 billion euros and 100,000 jobs every year. Bodies such as the Marine Stewardship Council now certify fisheries judged sustainable by independent assessors, while a United Nations target called for ending overfishing by 2020.
Source: Fishing industry
