American Association
for the Advancement of Science
New restrictions on
U.S. seafood imports, which will require seafood to be harvested in accordance
with the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), will likely offer
significant marine conservation benefits on a global scale.
The U.S. is the
largest importer of seafood in the world, accepting marine catches from more
than 120 countries.
Best case scenario, countries will comply and marine
species will benefit from improved protection.
Worst case, countries could
suffer economically from not being able to export to the US, and/or choose not
to comply.
The new law, which
comes into effect on January 1, 2017, prohibits intentionally harming marine
mammals thorough fishing activities, and it requires bycatch to be kept within
the limits of what marine mammal populations can sustain.
However, the authors caution, some countries may choose not to comply, and many developing countries may be unable to comply due to lack of monitoring and enforcement capacity.
To reduce these risks,
Williams et al. urge the international community to support capacity-building efforts
in the most economically vulnerable countries.
Small Latin American countries
and most of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are the most likely to
struggle to meet these new regulations, the authors note; efforts to comply
will need to be driven from within the countries themselves, but outside
support and funding could increase the chances of success.
Monitoring the
abundance of certain marine species is a major challenge.
For example, at this
point only about 5% of the world's oceans are surveyed well enough to detect
the presence of rare cetacean species or trends in common ones.
Regional
coordination, the author say, can help countries to share costs, ships, trained
observers, analytical expertise, and data.
The international
community can support each of these efforts through both funding and building
scientific capacity, the authors conclude.
