Successors to Roosevelt and Kruger - Marine Parks of the Sea

Charles Clover, author of The End of the Line - the inspiration behind the award-winning documentary film of the same name, was on splendid form in a talk to the school Geography Society tonight. After showing an abridged version of the powerful film he led a discussion on issues raised by the End of the Line. What is clear is the immediacy of the global fishing crisis. One way or another this will be resolved in our life time and the consequences of measures designed to protect and rebuild fish stocks and aqua-diversity will impact on billions of people around the world.

Accoding to Clover, the EU continues to be a black hole when it comes to successfully managing fish resources - if ever there is an example of government failure this is it. To save the Blue Fin tuna we need to set aside 20% of the Mediterranean and in some areas of the North Sea, replenishing haddock and cod stocks will require upwards of 50% of fishing grounds to be closed and the process of large-scale decommissioning of fishing capacity must continue. There is a stark paradox that fishing fleets can now make more money by fishing less because we are already way beyond the point of maximum sustainable yields. The “economic effort” required to catch one single fish in the North Sea has risen by 97 per cent over the last hundred years.

Investment in marine reserves offers much hope for the future and British money is leading the way in this. Charles Clover is President of the newly established Blue Marine Foundation and they have already had a major success. The Marine Protected Area (MPA) around the British-owned Chagos Islands will cover some quarter of a million square miles of sea around the archipelago in the Indian Ocean and include a “no-take” reserve banning commercial fishing. It appears to have been secured with a major investment from the Bertarelli Foundation.