VOA慢速英語:How Overfishing Threatens Asia's Wild Fish Stocks

[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report. [00:04.57]The pressure to feed Asia's growing population [00:08.19]has led to dangerous levels of overfishing [00:11.90]near Pacific coastlines. [00:14.25]An example can be found in Sindangan, [00:18.18]a fishing town in the southern Philippines. [00:21.04]Wild catches are falling while prices are rising. [00:26.25]This fisherman says [00:27.51]the area's once healthy fish stocks [00:29.87]are in danger because of an increase [00:32.53]in the number of fishing boats. [00:34.75]Across the South China Sea, [00:37.11]fish catches near shore have dropped [00:40.37]since the nineteen eighties. [00:42.33]That drop has pushed fishermen [00:44.64]to go offshore with bigger boats. [00:47.65]Benjamin Francisco is an official [00:50.67]with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. [00:55.38]He says some of the methods they use [00:57.68]to increase their catches are destructive. [01:00.50]"The use of fine mesh net, [01:02.73]the use of dynamite explosives for fishing, [01:04.83]and other fishing gear, that catches juveniles [01:08.44]or those that harvest maturing spawning stocks." [01:15.15]Fishing methods like these [01:17.13]harm the ability of some species to reproduce. [01:20.79]The fish warden in Sindangan, Julie Buot, [01:26.25]says most of the local fishermen use fine mesh nets. [01:29.94]Such nets have be banned for years [01:33.11]because they catch very young fish. [01:36.27]To deal with problems like this, Benjamin Francisco [01:41.69]has been promoting the idea of licensing systems. [01:46.15]The aim is to limit the number of boats on the water. [01:50.40]Asia has the world's largest fishing fleets. [01:54.46]They represent nearly three million [01:57.12]of the world's four million fishing vessels. [02:00.58]And most estimates show that the numbers are increasing. [02:05.19]In Hong Kong, there are increased efforts [02:09.56]to regulate fleets and to ban trawling for fish near shore. [02:14.42]More than two hundred million dollars [02:17.51]is being spent in an effort to increase catches [02:21.52]by small fishing operations. [02:23.82]So Ping-man of the Hong Kong Agriculture, [02:28.19]Fisheries and Conservation Department [02:30.70]is hopeful about the efforts. [02:33.11]He expects catch values to increase. [02:36.57]But Hong Kong's measures are costly. [02:39.23]Benjamin Francisco says a lot of governments in Asia [02:43.39]are not in a position to copy them. [02:46.55]"The issues are deeply rooted in poverty, [02:49.25]the inability of local government [02:52.37]to respond immediately, insufficiency of funds." [02:56.68]In Sindangan, Wilfredo Ortega feeds a family of nine children [03:02.35]from small-scale fishing. [03:04.40]On a recent day, he caught only half a dollar's worth of fish. [03:10.03]He had to return to shore early because of monsoon winds. [03:15.44]"In these months, it's quite tight," he says, [03:20.70]"We can only save during the months of November, [03:23.80]December, January by catching young sardines." [03:26.51]The young sardines may feed Mr. Ortega's family for now. [03:31.37]But the catches today mean fewer mature fish tomorrow. [03:36.44]And they mean an even riskier future for those [03:40.64]who depend on fishing when no other work is available. [03:45.20]And that's the Agriculture Report in Special English. [03:49.27]You can read and listen to our reports [03:52.55]online at chinavoa.com. [03:55.92]I'm Christopher Cruise.

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