December 10, 2008: Fisheries Economics Research Unit Director, Dr. Rashid Sumaila contributes to an article for Conservation Magazine titled 10 Solutions to Save the Ocean.

Dr. Sumaila discuses the issue of subsidies to high seas bottom trawlers saying:

Marine ecosystems pay a hefty price for getting orange roughy, Greenland halibut, and deepwater shark to our dinner plates. Fishing vessels capture a majority of these and other bottom-dwelling species by dragging huge nets armed with steel plates and heavy rollers across the seabed. These trawlers crush everything in their path and haul up tons of coral and other unwanted bycatch—decimating entire ecosystems in a matter of weeks or months.

Marine conservation organizations have worked for years toward a moratorium on high-seas bottom trawling, to no avail. But my colleagues and I think we have found this industry’s Achilles’ heel: fuel subsidies.

To learn more about world fishing subsidies you may be interested in:

• The Global Ocean Economics Project
• Buyback Subsidies, the Time Inconsistency Problem, and the ITQ Alternative
• Quantification of U.S. Marine Fisheries Subsidies
• Fuel Prices, Subsidies, Overcapacity, and Resource Sustainability

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An archived version of the original article in PDF format is available here.