WORLD OCEANS DAY

National Fisheries Resources on the Brink of Destruction?

World Oceans Day is an annual event established by the United Nations (UN) to raise awareness and commemorate the importance of protecting marine ecosystems around the world. June 8 is not just a day to celebrate. This celebration should be translated into an action plan to ensure that fisheries resources can be inherited and enjoyed by future generations. Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) urges that policies and laws on the protection of the environment and fisheries resources should be strictly implemented to ensure the sustainability of the country’s fisheries resources.

We are concerned over the decline of fisheries resources as we can see the onslaught on our marine ecosystem and also the dwindling stock of certain species of fish that are increasingly difficult to find such as pomfret, grouper, jenahak and others. Studies find that the decrease in population and endangered species are fish species that have high commercial value.

Over-exploitation, waste of fishery stocks and high landings of trash fish are contributing to the deterioration of Malaysia’s fishery resources. These problems have been raised long ago but still prevail as no concrete actions have been taken to address the issues.

The 2nd National Agro-Food Policy (2021-2030) targets 40% of the country’s fisheries resources to be from aquaculture and 60% to be from capture fisheries (wild catch). Although this policy has been improved compared to the Agro-Food Policy 1.0 (2011 -2022) which sets the rate of 50:50 aquaculture and capture fisheries, it is inadequate.  The uncontrolled aquaculture industry is one of the factors that is damaging fisheries resources.

This policy will encourage the destruction of mangrove forests, rivers and coastal areas for aquaculture development. Studies show that 70% of marine resources use mangrove forests as nurseries and breeding grounds. Therefore, the mangrove forest ecosystem should be fully protected.

The development of the aquaculture industry promotes a high demand for trash fish. The industry has encouraged trawlers to catch trash fish to be used as a source of food for farmed fish/aquaculture. Trash fish are fish that have no or little commercial value that are caught and processed as food for the aquaculture industry.

Based on the fisheries statistics of 2021, as much as 33% of the trawl catch is trash fish, that is 192,413 metric tons out of the total trawl landings of 574,836 metric tons. Based on this data, it is not impossible that fishery resources will disappear by 2048 as per the study conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The zoning system that has been used for a long time to protect fishery resources is a failure due to lack of enforcement in protecting the area. Encroachment of trawlers in zone A (below 5 nautical miles) often occurs, causing never-ending conflict between zone A fishers and trawlers.

Prohibited fishing gear such as dragon nets and push nets that are operating in the shoreline and river mouths seem to be immune to enforcement measures and destroy the habitat of juvenile fish. Even fishing gears that damage fishery resources are increasing, uncontrolled.

We believe that if trawl nets and destructive fishing gears that damage fishery resources are eliminated, coupled with stringent and effective enforcement actions, our fishery resources will recover. Marine resources will be rejuvenated, reproduce better and more.

Hence, SAM urges that integrated fisheries management that takes into account the close relationship between ecosystems and marine resources needs to be given serious emphasis. Resource sustainability and serious degradation of fish biomass need to be dealt with wisely. The authorities must be firm in carrying out policies and enforcing laws to protect fisheries resources to ensure that the country’s fisheries industry grows in line with the sustainability of marine resources.

Therefore, SAM calls for all parties to work together and find the best method to manage our fisheries resources sustainably.

Meenakshi Raman
President
Sahabat Alam Malaysia

Media Statement, 8 June 2024