How More Efficient Fishing Can Protect the Ocean | National Geographic

[Music] All the management strategies that we have today were really developed thousands of years ago by the Pacific Islanders. Things like closed areas, closed seasons for spawning, minimum size [Music] limits. Somebody would say, like, “Oh, he's a fisherman. Is he a good fisherman?” And the definition of a good fisherman is not somebody who goes out there and harvests everything, but a successful fisherman is somebody who goes out there and takes care of the ocean while harvesting from the [Music] ocean.

In the years since the rise of global commercial fishing, 90% of fish stocks have been fished at or above their maximum sustainable yield, proving a desperate need for global sustainable fishery management. For years, we've been puzzling over the problem of showing people what's happening way offshore, out of sight or underneath the surface of the water. And we stumbled across a system of radio frequency broadcasts that can be intercepted by satellites to take all of the commercial fishing activity in the ocean and put it on a map for everybody to see.

Strengthened by satellite-assisted monitoring, international partnerships have grown, sharing data on shared fish stocks. Before, we were acting individually; we were not seeing, we were not knowing. Now, the only way you can fish in our EEZ is to be compliant, be legal, and then we can cooperate in sustainable fishing. Following in the footsteps of successful regional partnerships, shared management of shared fish stocks went global with the ratification of the Port State Measures Agreement by 36 parties covering 62 countries and the Partnerships of the Safe Ocean Network agreeing on shared frameworks for global fishery management.

Rewarding the good fishermen and taking bold collective steps forward toward the rhythms of our sustainable past, we in the West are just starting to realize the frailty and the finiteness of the ocean. When you decide that this is your priority, it must be reflected throughout the system. It's our life; the ocean is our life. [Music]