The Process of Illegal Fishing and Its Negative Outcomes

To embark upon, there is the latest news that 41 illegal fishing vessels were found in Thai waters by Thai authorities that were also accompanied by Environmental Justice Foundation members. Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and Thai police were patrolling while they caught these illegal vessels on the “Gulf of Thailand”. There were 12 children working on these boats and they were as young as 11 years of age. These kids were unfortunately detained with other fishing crew members by the authorities, thousands of miles away from their homes. Majority of these kids had one or the other crew member as a relative which makes it easier to claim that the kids were not actually working but just helping out a family member. These young kids drop their education at an early age and sadly the majority of them never go to a school because they have to become the breadwinners of the family. One of the kids worked as a cook onboard and he spoke to the EJF’s officer and mentioned that he was promised a small fee when he returns home.

Vietnam is the fourth-largest exporter of the seafood and sends out shrimp to 170 countries around the world which lead to a whopping revenue of $8. 5 billion in the year 2017. The majority of the seafood destination from not just Vietnam but other south-east Asian countries is European and American supermarkets respectively. Vietnam aims to increase exports to $10. 5 billion by the end of this year. This increase in exports will lead to an increase in the labour working on board, poor working conditions, low wage rate and increase in child labour. Steve Trent the director of EJF said that not all vessels had children on them but the majority of the fishing crew members recognized that it was wrong to be there and fish, but they cannot help it as there is no fish at home. Shockingly, none of the fishermen who interacted with the EJF had ever maintained a logbook or any kind of documentation to track their catch. The interesting fact is that not all illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a crime. For example: catching fish without a license, fishing in a restricted area is a crime but however unregulated High sea fishing is not. The high sea can be explained as an open sea which is not within any country’s jurisdiction which can also be addressed as international waters beyond the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Our planet covers about 45% of these High seas, these areas are under no national jurisdiction. Thus technically there is no national law-breaking and as a result, a huge amount of illegal fishing takes place here.

This has a huge impact on the environment like decreasing the fish population and the destruction of marine life. The fishers do not report or maybe under-report their catch which leads to the huge discrepancy in the estimation of fish stock. For example, 500 fishes were caught and only 200 were reported, so only 200 fishes would be replenished or restocked the other unreported 300 fishes are not refilled which leads to a decline in the fish population. The question we should ask ourselves is for how long can these fishes provide protein to 3 billion people on this planet if they are not restocked? Not for long for sure. Illegal and unregulated fishing also leads to barbaric practices like the use of dynamites and other explosives to get a more productive catch this bombing is destroying marine plants like coral reefs and also harms other marine animals.

As the last generation that can possibly benefit from clean oxygen, we should prioritize Environment sustainability considering we are close to mass extinction, contrary to what some of the world leaders might say today. It is not about capitalism any longer, to save ourselves and coming generations from this doomed future we should give consideration to other than human lives.