Voiceover (Ted Danson)
Marine reserves are areas of the world's oceans where commercial fishing is completely banned. The results can be staggering.
Professor Callum Roberts, York University
Wherever people have established an area which is off limits to fishing and police it well they've been resolute in their pursuit of protection. Reserves have shown marvellous benefits. I studied Marine Reserves in the Caribbean and there the local community set up four areas that were off limits to fishing in 1995. Over time you could see the reef repopulating and refilling and life was becoming more abundant and we saw an increase of three, four, five times the amount of fish that were present initially over a period of seven years of protection after that.
Voiceover
Hardy McKinney is a fisherman in South Andros in the Bahamas, campaigning for a reserve to be set up in an area decimated by fishing.
Hardy McKinney, Fisherman
Half this are set aside as a protected area, no one is permitted to go in and fish and you allow the fish to do what they do. It's a natural thing, you would have more fish so you would go to a rock where there is one Nassau group, the next year you may see two and the following year you may see four and so you know it... naturally it would work.
Professor Daniel Pauly, University of British Columbia
Marine reserves are absolutely necessary – they are necessary and we must have lots of them.
Professor Callum Roberts, York University
The best available calculation on how much it would cost to have a global network of Marine protected areas that recover between 20 and 30% of the world’s oceans is that it would take about 12-14 billion dollars a year to manage a network of that scale. Compared to fishery subsidies the amount is roughly equivalent. The fishery subsidies are estimated to be of the order of about 15-30 billion dollars a year and those subsidies encourage overfishing. What this 12-14 billion dollar cost of managing protected areas would do is to contribute to the solution to overfishing and, in the process, would create about a million jobs worldwide.
Voiceover
The world has signed up to establishing a network of Marine protected areas by 2012. Some nations have promised to protect 20% or more of their seas in the future. But we have to put pressure on governments to ensure this happens.
Professor Daniel Pauly, University of British Columbia
We have about four thousand Marine reserves of different sizes in the world. They cover less than 1% of the world’s ocean, 99.4% of the ocean is fishable.
Charles Clover
You’re allowed to fish in 99% of the ocean. Now that doesn’t seem to me to be a proper representation of our interests as citizens.
Voiceover
Marine Reserves on their own will not solve the problem of the emptying seas. Fishermen and migratory fish will move to unprotected areas so these also have to be controlled. Politicians have to act responsibly when making decisions about the oceans; consumers need to change there eating habits. And the global fishing industry has to abide by the rules and reduce its capacity.