Stop Funding Overfishing

Governments are helping the fishing industry empty our oceans. This injustice must end.

“It makes me wonder if the WTO is ever going to be able to deliver an agreement that would remove overfishing subsidies,” Rashid Sumaila, a specialist in fisheries economics at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and an expert speaker on panels at MC13, told Mongabay. Without one, he said, sustainable fisheries aren’t possible: “It is like giving with one hand by trying to manage sustainability and taking with the other hand by providing overfishing subsidies.”

Harmful fisheries subsidies are not only unsustainable but profoundly unfair. Based on the extensive body of evidence, the WTO needs to move on this soon and agree to eliminate harmful subsidies once and for all.

Make sure that WTO members continue to prioritize this critical issue for the health of our oceans, the wildlife and people who depend on it. Join #StopFundingOverfishing.

Photo credit: Dale Sanders