It is an unfortunate but well-known fact that fish and marine ecosystems worldwide suffer from overfishing. Over the last half-century, the proportion of global fish stocks considered to be overfished has steadily increased from about 10 per cent in 1974 to 37.7 per cent now. The trend affects every corner of our oceans, and the Caribbean is no exception. In Caribbean and nearby waters, the share fish populations fished beyond sustainable levels goes up to 42 per cent.
This overexploitation harms the marine environment and threatens the well-being of human populations who rely on healthy fish resources for their livelihoods, often in vulnerable coastal communities. For regions like the Caribbean, where the marine environment underpins economies and cultures, it is a priority that can’t afford to wait. For example, it has been estimated that the fisheries sector supports almost half a million jobs in the region, more than 5 per cent of the total work force, and fish consumption per capita is also very high in many Caribbean countries.
A key factor to consider when solving the equation is fisheries subsidies. Some forms of government support provided to the fishing industry are widely regarded as fuelling overfishing. By artificially reducing fishing costs, subsidies can encourage fishers to fish more than they otherwise would. When fisheries aren’t well managed, this pressure can lead to stocks becoming depleted. Subsidies also allow many industrial fleets to fish far – sometimes exceptionally so – from their country of origin. These subsidised distant-water activities can take place in or near developing countries’ waters, generating unfair competition with local fishers and affecting the resources on which they depend.
The good news is that governments have decided to act, and real change may be on the horizon. In 2022, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) adopted a long-awaited global agreement to curb harmful fisheries subsidies. The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies establishes binding rules that will force governments to consider the sustainability of the fishing activities that they subsidise. The objective is clear: to stop providing financial support to fishing activities that undermine the health of fish stocks and the food, job, and income security of fishing communities.
More specifically, this new treaty prohibits the provision of fisheries subsidies in situations where such financial support can be the most damaging: (1) when fishing activities are illegal; (2) when the health of fish stocks has already declined significantly and they are considered to be overfished; and (3) when fishing takes place on the high seas and it is not subject to any kind of collective regulation. Importantly, developing countries will have more time to apply some of the agreed disciplines.
These much-needed rules are not operational yet, though. To enter into force and truly start deploying its positive effects, the treaty must be ratified by two-thirds of the WTO membership (that is, 111 members). At the moment, 86 countries have ratified it, including five members of the Caribbean Community – Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Haiti, and Saint Lucia – so 25 more ratifications will be needed.
As the moment when the agreement will enter into effect approaches, it is essential for countries to prepare for putting their new commitments into practice. Some governments have already started doing so in the Caribbean and elsewhere. And a crucial tool has been put in place at the WTO in that regard: the WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism, or “Fish Fund”. This voluntary funding mechanism will provide financial assistance to developing countries to support their implementation efforts. It already has around US$12 million in committed funding, ready to be deployed.
All of this is promising. But the WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies (often called Fish 1) only deals with very specific situations, and the problem with fisheries subsidies is broader. That is why WTO members are still negotiating. They hope to conclude additional rules that would better address the underlying role of subsidies as a driver of overfishing. Rather than waiting for stocks to be overfished or even depleted, these new rules would aim to prevent subsidies from contributing to overfishing in the first place. In essence, these rules would prohibit the use of certain types of fisheries subsidies unless countries have measures in place to keep fish stocks healthy, with a series of exemptions for developing countries.
Over the last two years, governments have made significant progress in finding common ground on these new rules (so-called Fish 2). Groups of developing countries, including the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, have made it clear how much the issue matters to them. Some of their key demands, like the need to ensure that artisanal fishers are not negatively affected by the rules or the importance of having stricter rules apply to countries with more developed and subsidised fishing industries, have been instrumental in shaping the latest version of the negotiating text.
Finding consensus on these new rules, however, has, so far, proved challenging. The overwhelming majority of WTO members would like to conclude negotiations on the basis of the draft rules currently on the table, but not all members are fully on board yet. A key question is whether a deal can be landed by the end of this year. The more time passes, the more risk there is to lose the unprecedented progress achieved in these negotiations and to let the unfair status quo continue. Let’s give them all the support we can!
Tristan Irschlinger is a senior policy advisor leading work on fisheries subsidies at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). Send feedback to tirschlinger@iisd.org [2], or follow him on X , formerly Twitter, @TristanIrschli.