OTTAWA, Ontario – (BUSINESS WIRE) – Today, Mission Blue, a project of the TED Prize, delivered a letter written to The Right Honorable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, Canada to call on G-20 nations to stop the expansion of worldwide fishing subsidy programs and to make a strong outcome in the World Trade Organization (WTO) fisheries subsidies negotiations a priority. Canada is hosting the Toronto Summit of the G-20 in late June. The letter expressed grave concern about the state of the world's fisheries and was signed by 67 Mission Blue participants, including Dr. Sylvia Earle, Chris Anderson, Andrew Sharpless, Leonardo DiCaprio, Glenn Close, Ed Norton, Chevy Chase, Fisher Stevens, Celine Cousteau, Jake Eberts and Daniel Pauly.
"We believe that the G-20 nations have a powerful opportunity this summer to halt the practice of fishing subsidies and put the world's fisheries back on a path to recovery and towards an abundant future," said Chris Anderson, TED curator. "Nearly all of the world's fisheries are in jeopardy from overfishing and could be beyond recovery within decades if current trends continue."
Despite international consensus on the dire state of the oceans, many governments continue to provide major subsidies to their fishing sectors. These subsidies promote overfishing by pushing fleets to fish longer, harder and farther away than would otherwise be economically feasible. The fleets are overcapacity – as much as 2.5 times what is needed to fish at sustainable levels. Destructive fisheries subsidies are estimated to be at least $20 billion annually, an amount equal to approximately 25 percent of the value of the world catch.
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