A recent National Geographic article detailed the interesting relationship between human conflict and fish populations. Historically, during periods of conflict, decreases in fishing activities led to sharp increases in predatory fish populations—especially in the Adriatic Sea during WWI, and the Red Sea during Sudan’s 1980 war. When the conflicts ended, regions redoubled their fishing efforts and aggressively fished the populations, curbing growth.
Unfortunately, it appears that the conflict in Libya will not follow this precedent. Despite the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) banning Libyan-owned vessels from participating in this year’s bluefin tuna season, these ships have departed from Maltese ports and are bound for Libya to participate in the fishing frenzy. The Libyan government announced that despite the ongoing conflict and the ICCAT decision, it would allow fishing to continue as normal.
Due to the war and the prohibition against Libyan participation, ICCAT will be unable to monitor any activity in Libyan waters, and thus these fishers can use their purse seines to their hearts content. Instead of the historical trend of countries focusing on war efforts during conflicts, it seems that Libyan fishers are exploiting the absence of both national and international oversight and laws.
According to the EU’s Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki, ICCAT plans to classify any Libyan-caught bluefin as illegal, which would prohibit any from being sold in European Union markets. In order for bluefin to be sold legally in the EU, all catches must be documented onboard the fishing vessels. Unfortunately, this requirement has not stopped thousands of tonnes of illegally caught bluefin from entering the market in the past— and for obvious reasons, no such documentation will take place in Libyan waters.
We must keep in mind that once the bluefin is caught, it is too late. More decisive action must be taken to ensure that these vessels do not fish illegally, and an even more prudent move would be for ICCAT to cancel the season entirely— allowing the populations to rebuild, as they have done in the past during similar times of conflict.