Jack mackerel stocks in the southern Pacific have declined from 30
million metric tons to less than 3 million in just 20 years. Photo:
Eduardo Sorensen / OCEANA
Eric Pineda, a dock agent in Talcahuano, an old port south of
Santiago, peered deep into the Achernar's hold at a measly 10 tonnes of
jack mackerel; the catch after four days in waters once so rich they
filled the 17m fishing boat in a few hours.
Mr Pineda, as
with everyone in the port, grew up with the bony, bronze-hued fish they
call jurel, which roams in schools in the southern Pacific.
''It's going fast,'' he said as he looked at the 17m boat.
''We've got to fish harder before it's all gone.'' Asked what he would leave 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, people eat it unaware; much of it is reduced to
feed for aquaculture and pigs. It can take more than 5kg of jack
mackerel to raise a single kilogram of farmed salmon.
Stocks have dropped from an estimated 30 million tonnes to less than a tenth of that in two decades.
The world's largest trawlers, after depleting other oceans, now head
south toward the edge of Antarctica to compete for what is left.
An eight-country investigation of the fishing industry in the southern
Pacific by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
shows how the fate of the jack mackerel may foretell the progressive
collapse of fish stocks in all oceans.
In turn, the fate
of this one fish reflects a bigger picture: decades of unchecked global
fishing pushed by geopolitical rivalry, greed, corruption, mismanagement
and public indifference.
An eminent University of British
Columbia oceanographer, Daniel Pauly, sees jack mackerel in the southern
Pacific as an alarming indicator.
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