New S China Sea marine survey highlights need for cooperation
Resources sit at the heart of regional competition in the South China Sea, and core among them is not oil and gas or seabed minerals, but fisheries. Yet efforts to establish effective regional fisheries management remain mired in political tensions and territorial disputes.
Overfishing, illegal, unlicensed and unreported (IUU) fishing, habitat destruction, and environmental change are central stress points in regional geopolitical competition.
A recent survey of scientists, analysts and security professionals in and around the South China Sea region highlighted the link between environmental and food security and traditional security.
Respondents noted the importance of scientific research, data collection and dissemination, and science-based inputs into the policy sphere as one key factor to both manage regional fisheries and to influence broader strategic decisions.
While scientific cooperation and science diplomacy are insufficient to resolve the complexity of regional differences, such is both necessary and has historical precedent.
The South China Sea is a vital international waterway, fishing ground, and focal point of regional and global geopolitical tensions.
Competing territorial claims, including China’s increasingly unambiguous assertion of its so-called nine-dash line, and the growing US-China competition in and around Taiwan, show no sign of resolution in the near future. Increased attention to IUU fishing adds to the securitization of fisheries already well under way with China’s and other countries’ use of maritime militia.
Tensions among nations in the South China Sea region are exacerbated by the stresses on regional fish stocks. Fish respect no political borders, and thus national fisheries management programs only have limited efficacy.
As the tragedy of the commons unfolds in real time, respondents to our recent South China Sea Marine Survey subscribe to the idea that cooperation can and does address the softer issues such as fisheries management and marine science research.
The three major takeaways from the survey are:
Although geopolitical issues top the list of concerns in the South China Sea, many of these issues have underlying environmental factors, particularly surrounding fisheries.
Scientific research and science diplomacy has the potential to address some of these factors contributing to regional tensions.
Given the importance of environmental factors impacting food security and strategic competition in the South China Sea, respondents suggest an increased need for policy makers to better understand the environmental science of fisheries.
With coral reefs dying as a result of an ecological catastrophe unfolding in the region’s once fertile and prized fishing grounds, there is an urgency to identify ways that the South China Sea can become a body of water that unites, rather than divides.
Our survey reinforces the concerns for marine resource management and conservation efforts because of the present environmental degradation.
As reclamations destroy marine habitats, agricultural and industrial run-off poison coastal waters, and overfishing depletes fish stocks, it is no wonder that more marine biologists voices are vital in a rules-based ecological approach to protect the environment and the threats to endangered species, including sea turtles, sharks, and giant clams.
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