Wednesday, October 08, 2008 Osmeña: Privatization of Philippine seas By Antonio V. Osmeña Estatements
THE world’s fisheries, including those of the coun-try, would collapse within the next 40 years, ac-cording to a gloomy prediction.
Filipino marine scientists need to study fishing practices in our territorial waters to prevent the country’s fishery from collapsing.
But while biodiversity might slow down the erosion of fish stocks, it could not prevent the collapse. This is why economists and marine biologists are looking at ways to prevent such catastrophe.
One such strategy is the privatization of commercial fisheries through what is known as catch shares or Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs).
Like other forms of wildlife, desired species of freshwater and marine fish are renewable resources if their populations are controlled by natural factors and there is enough breeding stock to repopulate the species for the next year.
Ideally, an annual maximum-sustained-yield figure should be established for each species to be taken.
Under-fishing occurs when fewer fish are taken than the ecosystem can provide. In this case, natural mortality factors rather than fishing for food or sport controls the population size of the species.
Over-fishing occurs when so many fish, especially juveniles ones, are taken and there is not enough breeding stock left for adequate annual renewal. In this case the population begins a decline.
If over-fishing continues, the species may become extinct.
The commercial hunting and harvesting of fish from the ocean is an important source of food and protein for much of the world’s population.
But the history of the world’s commercial fishing is an excellent example of the tragedy of the commons—the abuse and overuse of a common resource, such as ocean fish, which is not owned by anyone and available for use by anyone.
Depletion of resources occurs through the ignorance and greed of individuals, industries or nations as they attempt to get as much of a resource as they can in the shortest time possible with little concern for future supplies. As a result, many species of commercially valuable fish found in international waters and in the waters off coastal nations have been over-fished to the point of commercial extinction—they have become so rare that it no longer pays to hunt them.
Another threat to commercially important fish species and other species on which we depend on for food and other services is pollution of estuaries and oceans by toxic chemicals, radioactive wastes, oil and excess heat.
Today, fishermen have an incentive to work harder and travel farther, which can lead to overfishing: a classic tragedy of the commons.
The use of ITQs changes this by dividing the quota and giving shares to fishermen as a long-term right. Fishermen, therefore, have an interest in good management and conservation because both increase the value of their fishery and their share. And because shares can be traded, fishermen who want to catch more can buy additional rights, instead of resorting to brutal fishing tactics.
After a decade of using ITQs in the halibut fishery, the average fishing season now last for eight months. Evidently, the ITQs is a powerful new hook with which to capture the political will and public attention needed to spread an idea that could avert ecological disaster.
Although governing authorities are important in setting up ITQs, so is policing of the system by the cooperative fishermen themselves. The cooperative fishermen could claim ownership over parcels of sea within their municipalities and keep others out. Anyone trying to muscle in on the action risks being threatened: their gear may be cut loose or their boat could vanish.
The Philippine waters is an ideal place for ITQs, even if allocating catch shares is a difficult and fraught process.
CCMC DILEMMA. It may be best for Mayor Tom O to privatize the Cebu City Medical Center with a memo of agreement for the new operator to be obligated to subsidize Cebu City’s urban poor. Of course, this can be done with some finances from the City.
CCMC has its perrenial work attitude problem. To illustrate, my hotel supervisor, Pete Entera, had a motorcycle accident and was immediately admitted at the CCMC. According to his heirs, Pete died NOT from the accident but from a fall from his hospital bed, which caused a brain hemorrhage.
