Australia leads the way in trying to protect the world’s fish population. But stocks of jack mackerel, down 90 per cent in 20 years in the once-rich southern seas, point to a wider global calamity.
Eric Pineda peered deep into the Achernar’s hold at a measly 10 tonnes of jack mackerel after four days in waters once so rich they filled the 17-metre boat in a few hours.
The dock agent, like everyone in this old port south of Santiago, grew up with the bony, bronze-hued fish they call jurel, which roams in schools in the southern Pacific.
Where have all the fish gone?
Mort Rosenblum, Mar Cabra
January 30, 2012 – 2:44PM
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Jack mackerel stocks in the southern Pacific ocean have declined from about 30 million tonnes to less than 3 million in 20 years.
Jack mackerel stocks in the southern Pacific ocean have declined from about 30 million tonnes to less than 3 million in 20 years.
Australia leads the way in trying to protect the world’s fish population. But stocks of jack mackerel, down 90 per cent in 20 years in the once-rich southern seas, point to a wider global calamity.
TALCAHUANO, Chile Eric Pineda peered deep into the Achernar’s hold at a measly 10 tonnes of jack mackerel after four days in waters once so rich they filled the 17-metre boat in a few hours.
The dock agent, like everyone in this old port south of Santiago, grew up with the bony, bronze-hued fish they call jurel, which roams in schools in the southern Pacific.
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A small catch of jack mackerel aboard the Achernar.
A small catch of jack mackerel aboard the Achernar. Photo: Mort Rosenblum
It’s going fast, Pineda said. We’ve got to fish harder before it’s all gone.
Asked what he would leave to his son, he shrugged: He’ll have to find something else.
Jack mackerel, rich in oily protein, is manna to a hungry planet, a staple in Africa. Elsewhere, much of it is reduced to feed for aquaculture and pigs. It can take more than five kilograms of jack mackerel to raise a kilo of farmed salmon.
Martin Gotje tracks fishing fleets.
Martin Gotje tracks fishing fleets. Photo: Valerie Schenkman
Yet stocks have dropped from an estimated 30 million tonnes to less than 3 million in two decades.
The world’s largest trawlers, after depleting other oceans, now head south towards the edge of Antarctica to compete for what is left.
An eight-country investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists of the fishing industry in the southern Pacific shows why the plight of the humble jack mackerel foretells progressive collapse of fish stocks in all oceans.
Jack mackerel sold in Valparaiso in Chile.
Their fate reflects a bigger picture: decades of unchecked global fishing pushed by geopolitical rivalry, greed, corruption, mismanagement and public indifference.
University of British Columbia oceanographer Daniel Pauly sees jack mackerel in the southern Pacific as an alarming indicator.
This is the last of the buffaloes, he told the ICIJ. When they’re gone, everything will be gone . . . This is the closing of the frontier.
2012 Fairfax Media