| I recently had the pleasure and good
fortune to meet with several ambassadors
and delegations to the World Trade
Organization (WTO) in Geneva,
Switzerland. I was there in part to thank them for
their work and leadership, but also to discuss how
we could most effectively address the issue of the
government subsidies that lead to overfi shing.
As an actor, I have played roles in science
fi ction and fantasy fi lms, but I must tell you
that what is happening to our oceans is far
from being science fi ction. It is a cold, hard
fact. Governments are paying their commercial
fi shing fl eets to plunder our oceans and the
consequences of chasing down every last fi sh
are cataclysmic.
A little background:
A team of leading international scientists
investigating the state of the world’s fi sheries found
that 29 percent have collapsed from
overfi shing. Even more alarming, this
same study projects that all of the
world’s commercial fi sheries could
collapse within decades if current
trends continue. Another study
published in the scientifi c journal
Nature concluded that 90 percent of
all the “big” fi sh – tuna, marlin and
shark – are already gone. Even the notoriously
cautious U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization
states that 75 percent of the world’s fi sheries are
now overexploited, fully exploited, signifi cantly
depleted or recovering. Our oceans are simply
being fi shed beyond their limits.
A key culprit in this destructive trend is the
estimated $20 billion in subsidies that many of
the world’s governments give to global fi shing
fl eets each year. These subsidies outfi t and sustain
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fishing operations that could otherwise not
afford to fish as long, hard or far away as they do.
The bottom line is that subsidies have produced
a global fi shing armada with many times the
fishing power needed to fi sh at sustainable levels.
In short, we are fi shing our oceans to death. Why is this important? Quite simply, we are
talking about food security, economic survival and
the health of our planet — a crisis that demands a
response from all reasonable people. The WTO is
currently negotiating new international trade rules
to control fi sheries subsidies as part of its Doha
round. These historic negotiations represent the
fi rst time that environmental concerns have led
to the launch of a specifi c trade negotiation. But
the results of these negotiations go far beyond
trade. Success would help ensure the long-term
sustainability of the world’s fi sheries and the health
of the oceans’ ecosystems.
The WTO took a tremendous step forward
in the negotiations when it produced the
first draft agreement on
fisheries subsidies in late
November 2007. The draft
agreement contains a strong
prohibition on capacity
enhancing subsidies and
provides for improved
fisheries management.
The world needs such an
agreement. That’s why I
recently met with U.S.
Trade Representative Susan
Schwab, who reiterated the
Bush Administration’s commitment to ensure
that fi sheries subsidies are part of any final WTO
agreement. We need leadership and a continued
commitment from the United States to produce
a strong WTO agreement on fi sheries subsidies
because the health of our oceans depends on it.
There are no good reasons not to, and a world of
reasons to be supportive. |
