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Destructive fishing practices

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Destructive fishing practices

Destructive fishing practices are fishing practices which easily result in irreversible damage to habitats and the sustainability of the fishery ecosystems. Such damages can be caused by direct physical destruction of the underwater landform and vegetation, overfishing (especially of keystone species), indiscriminate killing/maiming of aquatic life, disruption of vital reproductive cycles, and lingering water pollution.

Many fishing techniques can be destructive if used inappropriately, but some practices (such as blasting, electrocution and poisoning) are particularly likely to result in irreversible damage to the ecosystem. These practices are mostly, though not always, illegal (see also illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing), and even where they are illegal, regulations are often inadequately enforced.

The narrowest definition of destructive fishing practices refers principally to bottom trawling over vulnerable habitats (shallow corals, deep sea corals, or seagrass, for example), as well as practices such as shark finning, blast fishing, poison fishing, muro-ami, and push netting. These latter practices are not significant within the fishing zones of most developed nations, being generally outlawed.

A wider and more useful definition would include:

This definition could be extended to cover activities such as:

The term "destructive fishing practices" (or DFPs) has been featured in international fisheries literature since about the 1980s. No widely accepted definition of the phrase exists, and this will almost certainly remain the situation, given very different national and industry perspectives.

The Outcomes and Implementation Statements of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, held in Johannesburg in 2002, contain a commitment to phasing out destructive fishing practices in the marine environment by the year 2012. All nations attending the summit supported this statement.

Many nations had made commitments to end destructive fishing practices much earlier. In 1999, 124 nations explicitly gave their support to the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries 1995 through the Rome Declaration on Responsible Fisheries. The list of these nations includes most of the major fishing nations of the world. However, while the Code of Conduct contains a commitment to end destructive fishing practices, the Code contains no timelines.

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