Oceana’s Andy Sharpless on Sustainable Fishing for Future Fish

by Campaign for Eco-Safe Tuna
March 1, 2015

Save the fish so we can eat more fish is exactly what Andy Sharpless, CEO of the advocacy organization Oceana, argues in his book The Perfect Protein (Rodale Books, 208 pp., $16.39) and in a recent interview with Public Radio International. He maintains that it is critical that we protect this healthy food source to feed our growing population for years to come, but this will only happen if we take control and actively manage our fisheries better.

“The problem is, we love [seafood] so much that we have, in a very short-sighted way, depleted the ocean bank account, so that the ‘interest,’ if you will, that an abundant ocean could provide is no longer big enough to feed the mouths that want to eat it,” Sharpless explains.

So what does a well-managed fishery look like? Sharpless has three basic rules:

1) Set and enforce scientific quotas;

2) Protect the nursery habitat, so small fish can grow to reach reproduction age;

3) Manage the accidental killing of non-target species, called bycatch.

Sharpless says that through better fishery management by a relatively short list of countries, we could increase the productivity of the ocean quite rapidly — within five or 10 years and by 20 to 40 percent in the total world catch from the previous peak in the late 1980s. “If we stop overfishing, we can rebuild the bank account in the ocean and see a sustainable level of return each year.” This improved management would mean that we would have that food source available for people to eat forever.

Unfortunately, recommendations like these fall on deaf ears with “environmental” groups like Earth Island Institute. Their so-called “dolphin-safe” labeling goes against virtually all of Sharpless’ basic rules for a well-managed fishery. If your canned tuna in the pantry is labeled “dolphin-safe” you can be assured that it was caught in an area where there are no quotas for tuna, that it was caught in a way that catches juvenile tuna – reducing the number that make it to reproduction age and that it was caught with a FAD that ensnares and kills a huge amount of bycatch.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. Earth Island’s deceptive “dolphin-safe” label is bad for dolphins, bad for consumers and bad for our oceans.

Now go out and purchase The Perfect Protein. It's a great read!