On November 22nd, Professor Daniel Pauly, a Canadian biologist recognized as one of the world’s leading experts on marine resources, received the Albert I Grand Medal of Oceanography at the Oceanographic Institute in Paris. The occasion to Dive in! discuss with this scientist the problems of overfishing.
What is your perspective on the oceans?They will no longer be able to play the roles that our industrial civilization has assigned to them, namely to serve as a dumping ground for our waste and simultaneously as an inexhaustible source of food for our continuously growing populations. Fishing is the most intensive use we can imagine, and the sector where the chasm between our scientific knowledge and our extractive activities is enormous.Why, despite these evolving scientific understandings, does the ocean continue to deteriorate so much?Because humans have not integrated into their daily lives the events and global problems that surpass them. We live day by day, without worrying about the long term and the great challenges we will have to face (notably climate). And the politicians do not help us! They live with very short-term electoral goals, postponing the real necessary reforms.Some politicians sounded the alarm at COP21…Certainly, but human beings do not like to elect those who tell the truth and propose sacrifices.Where do you then find the strength to fight (via the NGOs you are involved with) if nothing changes?Because our survival is at stake! We know we must fight, but we have not yet found the lever that will act on human consciousness. Saying that we must stop eating this or that fish is good, but it is not enough to restore stocks. The lobbies are too numerous, and the big shipowners are too influential. Despite all possible studies, Ifremer will never take a stand against the fishermen. Intervention always happens after stocks are depleted.Is there a country more virtuous than others?The United States. The Magnuson-Stevens Act (passed in 1976 and reformed multiple times) on the rebuilding of stocks to 10 years has had a real positive impact. In Europe, and notably in France, ministers always side with the fishermen to the detriment of the scientists. The northern hemisphere replenishes itself at the expense of (poor) southern countries, and the gap is irreversibly widening.
Interview by Martine Carret
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