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RGI head, Kjell Inge Roekke, and his partner Bjoern Rune Gjelsten, have built up the most powerful private fishery empire ever, controlling about 10% of the global Whitefish resource. When he founded American Seafoods Co. (ASC) in 1987, nobody took notice, for it was merely one of a host of fishing companies which got its start in Seattle in the factory trawler boom of the late 1980s. But Roekke kept buying boats, and in a few short years ASC has risen to the top while many of its rivals went bankrupt. Today, Roekke's companies operate fishing vessels in Alaska, Russia, Argentina and South Africa, often dominating the other players: in Alaska, they control 37% of the offshore pollack quota. Not surprisingly, Roekke is widely regarded as the most powerful man in international fisheries. |
Although it got its start in Seattle, there is nothing "home-grown" about American Seafoods. Vessels based there have fished from the Bering Sea to the Antarctic, and it could be said that these ocean nomads have no home port: owned by a Norwegian holding company, managed by a Seattle-based subsidiary, crewed by citizens of many nations, purchasing licences and reflagging in whichever country is most convenient at the moment. |
THE MODERN FISHING REALITY
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Companies such as American Seafoods and its parent, RGI, have transformed the fishing trade into a globalised extraction industry dominated by multinational corporations which operate using industrial economies of scale. Today, fish and fish products such as surimi and fishmeal are sold to the highest bidder. The sad reality is that farmers or producers in the industrialised countries can pay far higher prices for fishmeal than the local communities in developing countries can pay for fresh fish. Thus, these communities are exploited twice: the fish stocks are depleted by these distant water fishing fleets, and the catch disappears to other countries, so valuable protein sources are lost. |
With bases on four continents and a global infrastructure to market the catch, RGI and its subsidiaries are well-positioned to cash in on whatever fish resources are available around the world. Now, Roekke plans to send the American Monarch, the world's largest surimi supertrawler, to fish off the coast of Chile; for very good reasons, the local Chilean fishermen are saying "NO". |
RGI is planning on sending the American Monarch to fish primarily
for southern blue whiting, but also hoki (Patagonian grenadier),
in the waters of southern Chile. They claim that the addition of
this vessel will not affect local fisheries, as the stocks of
these two species are abundant and there are no ecological links
between them and the stocks fished by artisanal Chilean
fishermen. Greenpeace does not accept these claims.
First, the abundance of the stocks. A research fishery conducted
by another RGI vessel, the American Dynasty, produced an estimate
of 170,000 tonnes for the stock of southern blue whiting. RGI
doubles this figure to 340,000 tonnes, claiming that the lower
figure represents only adult biomass, to which must be added an
estimate for the juveniles. They provide no justification for
simply doubling the adult biomass, and the Norwegian Institute
of Marine Research biologists have said that a ratio of 1:1 is
probably too high and would not be used in Norway.
To the estimate of 340,000 tonnes of whiting, RGI adds an
estimate of 760.000 tonnes for the biomass of hoki, for a total
estimate of 1.1 million tonnes of exploitable biomass. Yet the
preliminary fishing of the American Dynasty for southern blue
whiting included only 1.12% of hoki in the catch. In fact, while
hoki is a bottom species, whiting lives further up in the water
column, so the simple addition of the estimates for these species
is dubious at best. It seems that, as is frequently the case,
"optimistic" estimates of total stock abundance are used to
justify addition of vessels to a fishery.
Southern hake is the most important species for local Chilean
fishermen, and RGI has stated that, not only will the American
Monarch not fish for this species (though it is included in their
licence), but there is no ecological link between hake and either
southern blue whiting or hoki. The latter is a strange claim,
since the results of the American Dynasty noted that 30% of the
stomach contents of southern hake consisted of southern blue
whiting. There is thus a significant and direct link between the
principle target species of the American Monarch and the most
important species for Chilean fishermen.
A report by the Chilean Central Bank has stated that the stock
of southern hake has been reduced by 85% since 1985, from 575,000
tonnes to 85,000 tonnes in 1993. If one of the most important
prey species of hake, southern blue whiting, is now put under
intense fishing pressure by the American Monarch, any recovery
of the hake stock could be adversely affected, possibly even
prevented.
"Intense" is the most appropriate word to describe the fishing
capability of the American Monarch. The opening of the trawl it
will use measures 124 metres by 124 metres. The American Dynasty,
using a trawl with an opening less than half that of the American
Monarch, averaged a catch rate of 38 tonnes an hour. Simple
arithmetic suggests that the American Monarch could catch the
entire adult biomass of southern blue whiting in less than one
year. The RGI vessel will not be alone, though, as there is
already another vessel in the fishery catching 30,000 tonnes per
year.
RGI had said that the American Monarch would provide jobs for 500
Chileans, though this figure was later modified to 240. The
Chilean coastal fishing association, CONAPACH, is worried that
if this vessel enters the southern blue whiting fishery off
Chile, it will end up putting 6,000 people out of work in the
areas of Aysen and Magellan.
The chairman of CONAPACH said in an interview during his visit
to Norway in June 1996: "We fear that the American Monarch will
sweep up all the fish that is available off Chile, and then move
on to other places to fish." The Chilean fishermen have good
reason to be worried about the RGI vessel.
RGI has claimed publicly that their activities in Chile will pose
no threat to local fish stocks or fishing communities and that
they are truly interested in sustainable fisheries. If they are
sincere in these claims, the company should make one decision and
one decision only: to withdraw their plans to send the American
Monarch to Chile. On the other hand, it is difficult to see what
other fishing grounds provide viable options for this ship; it
is an open question whether or not there is a future for such
technology, but all signs suggest that there is not.
RGI IN LATIN AMERICA