Distant water fishing fleets are stripping the ocean bare and the new high seas treaty may be our last chance

0:00 Today we peel back what's happening on the far edge of Argentina's waters in a stretch of the South Atlantic called Mile 201. Here, hundreds of large fishing vessels converge each year plundering squid stocks that are vital to the ocean ecosystems and global food webs all with almost no regulation or oversight. We're gonna talk about why that's so important on this episode of the How to Protect the ocean Podcast. Let's start the show. Hey everybody. Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, Marine biologist and science communicator here to tell you what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.

0:40 Today we're gonna be talking about squid fishing in a section in the South Atlantic called Mile 201. You're probably wondering what's that 201? Stay tuned. We're gonna talk about why that's such an important number. Before we do though, I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about what I'm doing this year. I'm trying to build a network of independent podcasts all around ocean conservation and wildlife. And so to do this, I need your help and I would love to your support and people have actually reached out to me before that have actually inspired me to start this. It's a Patreon with different levels of membership, and you can just support me just to support what I'm trying to do with the podcast network. Or you can support specific podcasts. If you go to speak up for blue.com/patreon, you can help me be independent.

1:21 Stay independent. And what I like about being independent is that I don't have to talk about one particular organization over another, or what they're doing over another. I can just stay independent, non-biased, and just focus on the science, the policy, the economics. And just what you need to know just to become a better person around the ocean. That's really what it comes is, is be more aware, speak up for the ocean, and live for a better ocean. That's really what it comes down to. I say it every episode as you've probably already heard me. So if you go speak up for blue.com/patreon, the link will be in the show notes. I would be really appreciative if you can support me. If you can't, no worries. I completely understand. You can support me in other ways. Follow, subscribe however you want on whichever platform you listen or watch these episodes on.

2:02 So I really do appreciate it. So what is Mile 201 and why does it matter? So Mile 201 refers to an area on the High Seas, just beyond Argentina's Exclusive Economic Zone, the EEZ, which is roughly 200 nautical miles from the coast. Every country has a 200 nautical mile, kind of radius, I guess, or distance from its coast that is theirs. They basically manage what's ever in there. So you have the High Seas outside that 200 nautical mile, and you have, inside the 200 nautical mile the Exclusive Economic Zone, basically exclusive to that country. In this case, Argentina. Canada has it as well. United States has it. The interesting thing I found out on another podcast, Polar Bears and Flip Flops that I co-host with Angelo Villagomez, is we found out that in the Mediterranean, the people don't recognize the states in there because there's so many states.

2:50 I think it's like 23 or something like that. They don't recognize the 200 nautical miles zone because they all overlap. And so it'd be very difficult to do that. So it's all international waters, which is an interesting fact. So if you do get one thing out of this, you know that fact is there. But essentially like once a squid school migrates out of the Exclusive Economic Zone for Argentina, it enters in a largely unregulated area known as the High Seas, where no single nation could controls the fishing activity there until recently. But anyway, we will talk about that at the end of this episode. But satellite imagery shows that these fleets that come out from the High Seas, so distance fleets or anywhere else, they're so large that when they converge along this line that their lights are visible from space at night.

3:31 That's how big it is. It's like a small city that converges on that line. So because the squid has a one year lifecycle, so short lifecycle, heavy fishing pressure during the migration seasons that take 'em outside of that 200 nautical mile zone and into the 201 mile zone can quickly deplete local populations. So if you think about it, you have a one year life cycle of this squid. The squid goes out past the 200 nautical mile boundary to 201. It gets scooped up as many as possible. There's no regulations, there's no quotas. There's no nothing. Once it gets outside of that zone. And let's be honest, that line is not like drawn into the water. So. There are things that happen where some of these ships can go over the border and whatnot if it's not enforced.

4:14 And so you have this short lifecycle species that gets taken as much as possible. It's really difficult for that species to reproduce. So if you take out, say 60 to 75% of that species, then it only has like 40% of that species to go and reproduce. You'll get a smaller and smaller population every single time. So unregulated fishing in global High Seas is a huge growing challenge. Globally, many squid fisheries lack strong international management or monitoring systems, meaning that, mining of this resource often goes unaccounted for and unrestrained. And we could lose a lot of shrimp at any point in time, we just never know, depending on these fisheries and these fleets and how much squid they can carry, which is a lot, let's be honest.

4:55 So who is fishing these areas and how the effort has changed over time is a really big interesting factor here. So the vast majority of the vessels that are operating belong to the distance water fleets featuring China, with significant participation from Taiwan and South Korea. So a lot of Asian countries that are along these lines. In the Pacific, it makes sense. The China has probably one of the largest distance fishing fleets, so that'll be big. Between 2019 and 2024, total fishing activity in the region increased by about 65%. Remember when I told you about that I was probably in that number, driven largely by 85% surge in Chinese fishing effort. Many of the vessels turn off their tracking systems when fishing outside of national limits, a tactic known as going dark, which makes monitoring even more difficult.

5:41 So think about this, like everybody has a tracking system. They're supposed to have a tracking system AIS, right? And so you're able to see where these vessels operate. There was a study that came out that like 75% of the fishing fleets around the world do not put these on on a regular basis, or they may not even have it. So we have no idea where people are fishing, how they're fishing, where they're supposed to be, where they're not supposed to be, because it's very difficult to track with each GPS units because they know that if they turn it off or they don't use it, then it's really easy to kind of sneak in. Canada had this problem a number of years ago with the COD stocks like 30 years ago, where I remember seeing on the news when I was a kid. I remember seeing like the Coast Guard going out and even military navy ships were going out by that 200 nautical miles zone to make sure that there, I think it was Portuguese and Spanish fleets weren't coming in, taking and going over our border and taking our cod stocks.

6:26 That's a big thing is you're, going into national waters exclusive economic zones and you're fishing. That is a big no-no from an international relationship standpoint. So with China that operates the world's largest distance water fleet, fishing fleet, active in oceans, worldwide. These fleets supply seafood to markets in Europe, to North America, to Asia, and the lack of regulation in these areas like Mile 201 creates incentives for fishing to expand into the legal gaps. You have to be careful with that. We don't want that to happen. But it's hard to enforce that. It's hard to have ships out there at all times to make sure that they're there. Now, if there's a seasonal one, you have some ships and you have some planes flying over to make sure that they're not in that area, certain countries like Indonesia have taken a much more aggressive approach by actually sinking a lot of those ships, sending a hard message for a lot of the ships that if you come in and fish within our waters, we will sink your boat and we will take everything that's on it.

7:16 Obviously we don't wanna see that happen. I don't wanna see anybody get hurt on the High Seas, but Indonesia did take that route a number of years ago. I don't think they're still doing that. I haven't heard reports of that. But if anybody knows, let me know in the comments below. I'd love to hear about that because that's obviously dangerous and we don't wanna see that happen. Let's talk about squid and what would happen if it's collapsed. So, Argentine shortfin squid, which is what we're talking about here, are not just a fishery resource. They are a keystone species in the southwest Atlantic. That means they're serving as a critical prey item for whales, dolphins, seals, seabirds, and commercially valuable fish like tuna and hake. Experts warn that removing this prey base could trigger cascading effects throughout the Marine food web impacting species at multiple levels of the food web.

8:00 We call it trophic levels, multiple trophic levels of the food web. So squid are both predator and prey. The linking nutrient and energy flow along the food web, this makes them essential for sustaining ecosystem health and resilient food web because they play both roles. Without the adequate management stocks to regenerate yearly are vulnerable to overfishing and collapse. This is a big problem. It's kind of funny 'cause every time we talk about fish, we worry about if they're sort of a long lived species, where they, it takes multiple years to reach sexual maturity. So sometimes 10, 13, sometimes a lot less. We worry about those species because they're slow growers And so if you start taking them out at the highest level when they're at the adult level, older, they're at the biggest level. You know, producers will reproduce a lot of fish, but if you start taking those out, then you have smaller and smaller ones and eventually have ones that They're at the size where they're not reaching or time where they're not reaching sexual maturity.

8:48 And so that's why they have a lot of size restrictions on specific fish. But when we talk about quick growing species, these are too quick. So if you take out a generation, that generation may not come back afterwards, and that could be a big problem. We should also talk about, you know, looking at human rights and animal welfare concerns when it comes to this. So investigations have documented widespread animal cruelty, including the deliberate killing of seals in significant numbers on deck. So they bring 'em on the deck. If they're in their, nets and they'll start to kill 'em on the deck. These are seals and sea lions that are just trying to feed on the natural population. It is part of their lifecycle. It is part of nature. But what people don't like are seals taking their fish, and you can see that in almost every fishery around the world.

9:29 They're like, Hey, we have too many seals here. They keep taking our fish, and they'll try and shoot them. They'll try and kill them in very harmful and cruel ways. There are some pretty crazy scary people out there. And not everybody obviously, but there's a few that will treat these animals horribly. We don't wanna see that happen on any front, in any part of the world. And also like we have to look out for the crew members too. ' cause on some vessels they report this serious labor abuses such as long hours with little rest, physical intimidation, debt bondage, and wage withholding. So basically fishery slaves. They can come in all different forms or they can come in all of those forms and it's something we have to stamp out fast. But when you have distance fleets and you're out at sea for like six months at a time, you're not coming home. This is not an easy job to do.

10:09 It's very dangerous. Very dangerous. Sometimes you're in eight and 10 foot Seas, you're still trying to fish. You can go overboard very easily. You can get crushed by something very easily. Being on a working ship is not something that is like what we think of as being on a yacht. The ocean especially the Pacific ocean and the Southwest Atlantic ocean, it can be very scary. It could be very, very scary. It could be very dangerous. So that's something that we don't wanna see. And of course, many of the squid that are caught into these conditions end up in markets in the EU, the UK, North America. Meaning consumers may unknowingly support this harmful practices. We don't know if we're actually supporting these practices. Whether it's for squid or for anything else, we don't know. Like the calamari you had at your family restaurant. Maybe part of that fishery.

10:50 We have no clue. There's no way to track it. It's not a very well tracked fishery. That needs to be increased and get better. So reports from fisheries around the world show that High Seas fishing can be a vector of labor abuses when oversight is weak. This connects ocean conservation directly with human rights issues. So that's something that we have to be careful. And of course, the animal rights as well. Now there are regulations and there is need for transparency. But the fact is that there are currently no international, I'm gonna say this lightly because it's gonna change in after January 16th or January 20th. Agreed cash limits for squid in the high Seas office, Argentina leaving a regulatory vacuum that distant water fleets exploit. So because there's no regulation that once those squid go over that border.

11:32 Whether they're coming over the border or not, once they go over that border, it's over. They can get caught. They can catch as many as they want, and there's nothing that anybody can do. Argentina, the Fishers, there's nothing that they can do about it. Argentina's Coast Guard can monitor but has no enforcement power once the vessels move beyond their exclusive economic zone. So once they move to Mile 201, they can't do anything. If they come in on their exclusive economic zone, they can do something. Other than that, they can't do anything. Environmental groups are calling for binding international rules, better transparency through vessel tracking and import bans on seafood tied to illegal or abusive practices. So international treaties such as the port state measures agreement exist to prevent illegal catches from entering a trait. So almost like CITES which is also international.

12:13 The Port state measures agreement also does this where it says you can't import specific fish, but their catch reach is limited without widespread adoption and enforcement. So consumer awareness and pressure on import regulations help compliment management efforts. Now here's the thing though. We have a new binding agreement that's starting January 17th, not 16th is coming into force January 17th. It is called the BBNJ Agreement, also known as the High Seas Treaty. This is something that is unprecedented, is part of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS, and is designed to enhance conservation, sustainable use of Marine biodiversity in international waters beyond the nation's jurisdiction, which is the Exclusive Economic Zone.

12:55 It reached the required ratification numbers of 60 in 2025, and will enter in force January 17th. Probably by the time you listen to this episode or right around the time this episode is published. Now what can be done? Marine protective areas can be put into place. There's environmental impact assessments, legislation in there or policies in there. There's cooperation and monitoring policies in there, and of course there's capacity building and technology sharing among the countries of signatory countries. Not a lot of people. Even though there's 60 nations, not a lot of people are on this. Not a lot of the nations are on this, but this will grow as we continue to do this. It's been ratified, so that's always great. The US hasn't ratified to it for all my American friends. I don't even know if Canada's ratified. They've agreed to it, but they haven't ratified it yet as of this recording that I know of.

13:35 But regardless, this provides at least some international reflection. They could put a Marine protected area just on the Mile 201 or beyond that to say, Hey, internationally, you're not allowed to fish here. I don't know what the enforcement is. I don't know what the repercussions is. The High Seas Treaty is still in its infancy and probably still needs to be better reinforced in the long term, but at least we can put in and designate Marine protected areas. It could be paper parks right at the beginning, but at least we know there's something there. And sometimes when you look at these international treaties from a policy perspective, sometimes being embarrassed and being called out for violating like a Marine protected area. These countries don't wanna be called out like that. So maybe that would be the initial thing. I know it's like a slap on the wrist and people don't like it. But it's something that's big because a lot of countries take pride in that, especially countries like China.

14:20 They don't want to be part of it. They wanted to be part of the Port State Measures Agreement. That's something that's very important to them. And so they have to change the way they manage their distance fishing fleet to do that. So hopefully a High Seas Treaty will also allow countries that are, many countries do that are fishing in international waters to ensure that they are following the rules of the High Seas Treaty. So it's still in its infancy. It still has to be done. It still has to be put into force, but this could be something that could be in the long term of it. Hopefully the fishery lasts that long. But the squid at Mile 201 are a powerful example of why the ocean governance needs to be stronger, more transparent and linked to human rights protections. Every consumer policy maker and coastal community has a role in demanding sustainable management.

15:02 Before we lose, not just squid, but the rich and interconnected life that depends on them in the ocean. And I think that's something that's extremely important when we look at how we manage our oceans in the future. We have the tools and they're still coming and they're getting better and better, but we need to make sure that they're enacted and we need to make sure that countries follow them and the fishing fleets follow them. That's it for today's episode. I'd love to hear what you think of this new study that was put in. I'll put the link of the study in the show notes so you can get the whole paper. But I find like these types of new research papers that are coming out informative, I'd love to hear what you think. So let me know in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube. And if you're watching this or listening to this on your favorite podcast app or if you're listening to a clip on social media, you can go to speak up for blue.com/feedback.

15:46 Let me know what you think there. We'll have a conversation. You can delete a voicemail or write it down, like type it in. That'd be great too. So any type of way of engaging because this is the start of a conversation that I would like to continue with you, so let me know what you think on any of these different platforms that we are on. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the How to Protect the ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the True Nord Strong and free here in Canada. Thank you so much for joining me. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.