http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-savefish26nov26,1,2408723.story

By Kenneth R. Weiss, Times Staff Writer
November 26, 2006

Elsewhere along the coast, observation teams slosh through waterways in waders, carrying
rifles to ward off aggressive bears. Still others monitor the migration from low-flying planes,
or take inventory at fish weirs and atop counting towers placed strategically throughout the
wilds of Alaska as part of an elaborate surveillance of returning fish. At the first hint of a decline in salmon numbers, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is quick to shut down coastal fishing grounds and order fishermen to pull in their nets and lines.

State officials do this without protest from fishermen. Rather, they work together, to protect
not just a prized fish, but an economic bonanza and a leading source of private-sector jobs
in the state.

"We don't want to catch fish this year, but in future years too," said Juneau fisherman Jev
Shelton, who remembers when the collapse of Alaska's salmon fisheries from overfishing
was declared a national disaster about 50 years ago.

Threatened with the loss of one of its top industries, Alaska began limiting the number of
boats and fishermen, restricting the size of their catches, and giving fishermen a stake in the
long-term viability of salmon and other fish.

If only the rest of the world had learned from Alaska's response to the crisis. Today, records
show that 90% of the big fish — tuna, cod and swordfish — are gone from the oceans. If the
serial depletions continue unabated, a group of scientists recently predicted, major seafood
stocks will collapse by 2048.

Alaska's policy shifts are still an exception. By and large, ocean fishing, especially in
international waters, remains a free-for-all with too many boats chasing too few fish.

Only about 6% of the global fish catch is certified as "sustainable," meaning that fish are not
pulled from the ocean faster than they can reproduce and are not caught in ways that
destroy other sea life or undersea habitat. Much of it comes from Alaska.

Though other U.S. regions and nations have been reluctant to rein in their fishing fleets, help
has emerged from an unexpected quarter.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has pledged within three to five years to sell nothing but wild-caught
seafood that meets standards for sustainability set out by the nonprofit Marine Stewardship
Council. Founded in 1997, the council grants a blue and white label to fish that stand up to
independent certification.

Wal-Mart's shift in policy has rippled through the global seafood trade. The National
Fisheries Institute, the seafood industry's principal lobby, has become a booster of the
sustainable seafood movement after years of resistance.

McDonald's is now nudging its suppliers to come up with sustainably caught fish for its
Filet-O-Fish sandwiches, which consume 110 million pounds of Alaskan pollack, New
Zealand hoki and other whitefish from around the globe.

Meanwhile, Darden Restaurants, the parent of Red Lobster, is taking similar steps, as is the
Compass Group, America's largest food-service provider to corporate and university
cafeterias.

In turn, commercial fisheries are seeking certification, for flounder caught off Japan, herring
in the North Sea, Chilean hake and albacore off California.

"This is supply-chain pressure of the best kind," said Rupert Howes, chief executive of the
London-based Marine Stewardship Council. "The Wal-Mart commitment is actually
catalyzing commitments from other retailers around the world. We have a major Japanese
retailer that wants to launch MSC-labeled products."

Yet there could be even more risks for precarious fish stocks as megagrocers such as
Wal-Mart enter the seafood market, creating increased demand for the types of fish that the
sustainable seafood movement is trying to save.

"That's what fundamentally undermines the market-based approach," said Daniel Pauly, a
fisheries scientist at the University of British Columbia. "You create more customers for fish
and invariably increase the pressure on the stocks."

Pauly and other critics believe it's too late for the market alone to protect fish when the
world's population is growing and two-thirds of the world's commercial stocks are already
being fished at or beyond their capacity.

The only solution to overfishing, they say, is for governments to muster the political will to
restrict catches and take other measures to slow the plunder of the sea's diminishing bounty.

Much is at stake. Overfishing jeopardizes the dietary essentials of the billion people who rely
on fish as their primary source of nonvegetable protein, and it threatens the health of the
oceans themselves.

Fish and other marine animals help maintain the ocean's equilibrium by eating algae and
keeping microbes in check. Overfishing abets the spread of these primitive organisms, which
smother coral reefs and create "dead zones" in coastal waters that starve most sea life of
oxygen.

Despite plummeting fish stocks, overfishing is accelerating around the globe, encouraged in
part by $30 billion in annual subsidies for fishing boats, fuel and other assistance.

Asian and European nations provide the heftiest subsidies in efforts to keep a beleaguered
industry afloat.

Subsidies and government inaction undermine efforts to give a rest to areas of the ocean so
fish have a chance to replenish their populations.

S. Robson "Rob" Walton, son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, was on a scuba-diving trip at
Cocos Island off Costa Rica when one of the nation's leading conservationists persuaded
him to join the sustainability movement.

Peter Seligmann, co-founder of Conservation International, had arranged the dive trip.
During previous outdoor adventures, a friendship had evolved and with it $21 million in
donations from the Walton Family Foundation for Conservation International's ocean
programs.

After diving with schooling sharks and boating amid spinner dolphins, Seligmann told
Walton that even a billionaire's generosity wasn't enough to prevent the impoverishment of
the oceans.

"I was very clear with Rob," Seligmann said. "I said, 'I respect that you are dealing with
philanthropy and your personal interest. We need to have a discussion with Wal-Mart. It is
important for us to discuss with the world's largest retailer the issue of supply chain and the
impact it has positively and negatively on the resources of the world.' "

Walton, who is a major Wal-Mart shareholder and chairman of its board of directors, agreed
to introduce Seligmann to Wal-Mart Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. A series of discussions
led to a meeting in February at corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

There, company officials announced to a gathering of conservationists and seafood
suppliers that Wal-Mart would switch to wild-caught seafood certified by the Marine
Stewardship Council.

It also pledged to push for improvements in the way farm-raised shrimp and salmon, its two
most popular items, are grown. Shrimp and salmon farms often spread pollution and
disease to surrounding waters and contribute to the over fishing of wild fish, which are used
to feed farm-raised stocks.

"We are the largest seafood retailer in the U.S.," said Peter Redmond, Wal-Mart's vice
president for seafood and deli. "We have a pretty large footprint in everything we do. We
have the kind of volume that could help a fishery make the move to sustainability."

McDonald's recently began taking similar steps after collapsing fisheries prompted it to look
for ways to ensure a long-term supply for its 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries.

"We have seen fisheries dry up," said Bob Langert, McDonald's vice president for corporate
social responsibility. "We want to make sure that we take actions within our supply chain to
secure fish for the future. We want to have fish on our menu 10, 20 and 30 years from now."

Today, McDonald's has begun to shift away from rapidly dwindling stocks of Russian pollack
to more sustainable sources, including the council-certified Alaskan pollack and New
Zealand hoki.

Kellie McElhaney, a UC Berkeley business professor who studies corporate social
responsibility, said a reform movement often gained stature when big companies decide to
join.

"It ain't a church if you don't invite the sinners," she said.

For reforms to last, she said, corporations must see them as part of a business opportunity,
such as gaining market share, customer loyalty or securing long-term supplies — as is the
case with McDonald's.

"Anytime I hear a CEO saying, 'I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do,' I get nervous,"
McElhaney said. "It has to be part of the business strategy, such as helping people want
Wal-Mart in their communities."

Today, the corporate sustainability movement affects millions of meals every day. But more
than two-thirds of the world's seafood is consumed in China and other parts of Asia largely
untouched by the movement to save fish stocks.

"It's really exciting," said Jane Lubchenco, a marine biologist at Oregon State University.
"When Wal-Mart speaks, people listen. But it remains to be seen what kind of leverage that
will bring on policy makers."

Success will come if these big buyers can change the political climate, said Mike Sutton,
director of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Center for the Future of the Oceans.

"The arm of the law is short, but commerce reaches everywhere," Sutton said. "If we can
change the politics of fishing, it will make good management of fishing politically feasible."

In the United States, the politics are dominated by eight federal fishery management
councils, quasi-governmental entities that were set up in the 1970s to help expand the
domestic fishing fleets and divvy up the spoils.

The councils, which are controlled by fishing industry representatives, are not inclined to
reverse course and begin shrinking the size of fleets to allow fish populations to recover.

Over the years, as fishermen struggled to stay in business amid declining fish stocks, the
councils have urged raising the limits on allowable catches — even as government and
university scientists warned that such exploitation was like a farmer eating his seed corn.

In that environment, the cod fishery off New England collapsed, as have some species of
rockfish off California.

Although many scientists and two national commissions have spelled out needed changes,
little has occurred.

Still, the climate of permissiveness in the United States doesn't compare with the free-for-all
on the high seas or off the shores of poor nations that sell fishing rights to foreign ships.

Occasionally, progress on the policy front has been made.

Disregarding industry objections, President Bush earlier this year established the world's
largest marine reserve around the northwest Hawaiian Islands. Such reserves act as fish
nurseries, and scientists say a global network of them is needed to help depleted stocks
rebound along with the health of the oceans.

Scientists say governments also need to reduce fishing pressure around the reserves. One
way is to thin fleets by buying out boats and licenses. Another is to allocate an overall catch
limit among fishermen and let them buy and sell shares, creating an economic incentive for
some to quit fishing.

Experts say lasting reform is impossible until fishermen, like those in Alaska, are persuaded
that short-term sacrifice ensures the long-term health of fish stocks.

In Alaska, the culture of reform did not take hold until after years of emergency closures of
fishing grounds, idled boats, foreclosed loans and bankruptcies. Some fishermen lost their
livelihoods.

"If there are no rules, then fishermen end up their own enemies," said Juneau's Jev Shelton,
who is 64 and in his 46th year as a commercial fisherman. "That's what happens when you
have unfettered access to a fishery. Human nature will bring unfortunate results."

Alaska voters in 1972 changed the state constitution to "limit entry" into any fishery for
conservation purposes or to prevent economic distress among fishermen. The state has
since kept salmon fleets from growing too large by restricting the number of permits.

Today, salmon catches are setting records — results that fishermen attribute to a new ethic
of restraint. Fishermen see that they share the responsibility for the health of fish stocks, a
dramatic shift from the short-term frenzy to catch as much as possible by any means
necessary.

"We were all criminals at one point," said Scott McAllister, a purse seiner who has fished
Alaskan waters since 1971. "You wouldn't turn in anybody, if they were your buddy or not.

"But now, it's self-policing."

McAllister, to his horror, recently realized he had violated the rules. Misreading a notice, he
fished in a newly closed area.

"It was a honest mistake, but I couldn't live with myself," McAllister said. He turned himself in,
forfeiting $12,000 worth of fish to state authorities.
 

*

About this story

This is one in a series of Los Angeles Times articles on threats to the world's oceans. To
read the series "Altered Oceans" and see a multimedia presentation, including photo
galleries and video reports, go to latimes.com/oceans.

*

What you can do to help Everyone, especially seafood eaters, can help support healthier oceans by making even slight changes in what you buy and eat, and how you live. Ask questions when buying fish at a store or in a restaurant. Where is it from? How is it
caught? Customers' questions will force markets to get the answers.

Get educated about seafood choices. The Monterey Bay Aquarium and other nonprofit
groups offer helpful pocket guides to avoid over fished species and destructive fishing
practices. Websites for specifics: http://www.seafoodwatch.orgwww.blueocean.org/seafood
http://www.oceansalive.org

Shop for sustainability. Look for the blue and white label from the Marine Stewardship Council for fish certified as sustainable caught. Eat lower on the food chain.  Eat more oysters, scallops, crabs and squid, and less swordfish, grouper, tuna and shark.
Shellfish and other species low on the food chain reproduce much faster than slow-growing
big fish.

Avoid buying seashells.  Many of these animals are hunted for their shells, accelerating their decline. Support protected areas.  Support the creation of marine protected areas. The ocean equivalent of wildernesses, protected areas ban fishing and allow depleted species to recover.

Target abundant species if you go ocean fishing, target species that are abundant, and avoid those that are over fished or poorly managed, even if it's legal to catch them.

Hang on to fishing gear Don't toss your fishing gear, including snarled lines. Discarded line and other gear can trap birds, turtles and marine mammals and cause them to drown.

Sources: Monterey Bay Aquarium; Seafood Choices Alliance; "50 Ways to Save the Ocean"
by David Helvarg; Environmental Defense; Marine Stewardship Council

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