Conservation of dwindling fish stocks is being severely hampered by poor controls on global trade, according to research published today (Monday, October 9, 2017) in Nature/Scientific Reports.
The study carried out by the Ecosystems and Environment Research Centre at the University of Salford looked at global production and trade statistics of the popular ‘snapper’ fishes and uncovered wide inconsistencies in records meant that the officially reported snapper trade may be underestimated by more than 70%.
Major discrepancies were found between imports reported by the USA, the world’s largest consumer of snapper, and exports declared by its chief suppliers – Mexico, Panama and Brazil.
New Zealand reports hefty snapper exports but the study suggests that the traded fish is actually silver seabream – local referred to as ‘snapper’, but belonging to a different fish family. Consequently, global snapper exports are inflated by almost 30%. The discrepancies, they suggest, are likely to happen for other valuable and exploited fish that do not have detailed trade codes, such as groupers, croakers and the orange roughy.
“Without the ability to accurately track fish species in trade, or to link provenance with consumption, vulnerable stocks of snapper and other fish may be overexploited instead of protected,” said Stefano Mariani, professor of conservation genetics.
“Equally problematic is that rare species are being traded under the radar, with consumers being sold a different product to the name on the label, both in shops and restaurants.
“Worryingly, the current flaws in trade regulations even allow “bovine” as a label, allowing firms to illegally trade wildebeest, buffalos, bison, gazelles, springboks etc, unnoticed.”
Part of the problem, the team concluded, is that the global trade classification system treats fish with a broad brush description, allowing heavily-exploited species to be lumped under generic trade codes.
“The snapper family comprises more than 100 species; highly variable in number, distribution, value and vulnerability to overfishing. Yet, these species largely lose their identities once they are hauled from the water and shipped to foreign destinations,” said lead researcher, Dr Donna- Mareè Cawthorn.
Cawthorn used “mirror statistics”, comparing export and import statistics drawn from customs databases for every country trading in snappers, and cross-checking the data against official snapper trade reported to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
“The total global imports of a commodity should be equal to the global exports, whenever you spot mismatches, it means that there is some country that is not reporting either some import or some export, or both,” she said, adding that unreported trade could potentially involve illegally-caught produce.
Snappers are one of the USA’s most prized seafoods, with fresh fillets potentially fetching upward of $75 per kilo. The red snapper is currently at the centre of a battle between the Trump administration and conservationists who say recreational fishing is endangering the species.
Learn more: Official fish trade ‘hugely underestimates global catches
The Latest on: Global fish catches
[google_news title=”” keyword=”global fish catches” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
- Global Aquaculture Therapeutics Industryon April 23, 2024 at 8:37 am
Global Aquaculture Therapeutics Industry to grow at 8.6% CAGR from 2023 to 2033, reaching US$ 3.98B by 2033 from US$ 1.74B in 2023 ...
- Goodbye cod, hello herring: why putting a different fish on your dish will help the planeton April 17, 2024 at 10:03 pm
In the first of a new series, we look at why people reject so much of the bountiful catches from our seas in favour of the same few species, mostly imported – and how to change that ...
- Port to plate in 48 hours? How Holland America Line brings fresh fish to guestson April 17, 2024 at 8:00 am
Its mechanical arm reached across the edge of the pier into a square opening toward the vessel’s aft, where it disappeared from view. But by about 7 p.m., a piece of that mahi-mahi was on my plate in ...
- FMI Analysis Projects Global Fish Feed Pellet Making Machines Market Revenue to Exceed US$ 2,167.9 Million Mark by 2033, Riding an Average 5.6% CAGRon April 16, 2024 at 7:22 am
The fish feed pellet making machine market is poised for significant growth, driven by a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.6% over the forecasted period. By 2033, this burgeoning market ...
- Does replacing beef with fish like sardines prevent early death?on April 12, 2024 at 7:30 pm
According to a study published in the journal BMJ Global Health, replacing red meat with forage fish could prevent up to 750,000 deaths and lower disability linked to diet-related diseases.
- Eating more fish like sardines instead of red meat might prevent up to 750,000 premature deaths by 2050on April 10, 2024 at 10:07 am
Herring and other forage fish are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids that help reduce the risk of heart problems ...
- Waste reduction: Gone-off items can be turned into feed for fishon April 9, 2024 at 10:14 pm
Some estimates suggest consumers worldwide throw out around a quarter of what they buy, even as inflation takes hold in wealthy nations and, worse again, millions of people in elsewhere endure ...
- Swapping red meat for herring/sardines could save up to 750,000 lives/year in 2050on April 9, 2024 at 3:58 pm
But currently three quarters of the forage fish catch, including a significant amount caught off the coasts of countries enduring food insecurity and malnutrition in the Global South, is ground in ...
- To save the oceans, start eating ‘naked clams’on April 2, 2024 at 4:59 pm
Wild fishing is at capacity — we haven’t increased catches from the sea since the 1990s. All the increase in global fish demand over the past three decades has been met by aquaculture ...
- How AI is being used to prevent illegal fishingon April 2, 2024 at 4:59 pm
head of the research team at Global Fishing Watch. Such illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing may catch as much as 26 million tonnes of fish every year, or one in every five fish ...
via Google News and Bing News