GENEVA, Dec 1 (Reuters) – Marine scientists warned the World Trade Organisation on Tuesday that the world’s seas were in peril and called for a new WTO deal to discourage over-fishing.
"The health of the world’s oceans is hanging in the balance," they said in a letter to WTO chief Pascal Lamy, citing World Bank estimates that $50 billion a year is lost globally to poor fisheries governance and over-exploitation.
Subsidies of the fishing sector are an often-overlooked target of the WTO’s Doha Round, which would slash government aid programmes for nearly all farmed and manufactured goods.
As part of that global accord, which has met some resistance from nearly all the WTO’s 153 members, countries are seeking ways to reduce incentives to use polluting fuel and deplete vulnerable fish stocks.