Sustainable Enterprise of Overfishing - Assignment Example

Sustainable Enterprise – Over Fishing – Critical Essay Order No. 294226 No. of pages: 9 6530 What conditions are best for people to develop awide and open inquiry into possible solutions? Every individual is unique and has their own thoughts and ideas, preferences, likes and dislikes and opinions. Therefore the scope and platform for voicing ones own ideas and opinions would be the first criteria that would be necessary for people to develop a broad outlook for inquiry into finding the right possible solutions. Some of these vital solutions involve making use of the latest technology so as to enhance production and make better progress. Another pathway to good solutions is to take some trouble in educating the consumer of the different types of fish, so they understand the kind of fish they are buying. Accepting other participant’s point of view • Is there a map of likely scenarios for mutual benefit? Mutual benefit is got through Recreational fishing because it provides a wide range of benefits that involve environmental, social, psychological and economic aspects. In the same way people in the fishing industry derive mutual benefits which are both economically and environmentally satisfying. In enjoying these mutual benefits one has to follow certain policies that are ‘enforced by the RecFish Australia code of conduct’ (2001) which express people’s responsibility towards the environment and the respect of the stakeholder. • Are there any emerging themes? While the Australian domestic markets keep expanding and the demand for Australian seafood keeps escalating, there is an urgent need for seafood resources to be cultivated and harvested in a systematic sustainable manner, so that the right amount of stocks could be maintained and there is flexibility and viability in the fish industry that has an employee population of about 80,000 workers. In such a scenario there is no doubt that there are pockets of emerging themes such as exploitation of the market and also criminal activities. Even though there appears to be stringent rules and regulations guarding the rights of others, yet there is a lot of organized illegal activity that takes place which involves either barter or cash transactions. Efforts are on to prevent illegal harvesting and trade practices by the Australian fisheries management authorities who have helped to control such activity to a great extent thereby lending their support and cooperation to all the other stakeholders and other organizations involved. • Are there opportunities for developing options and clarifying choices? There are a lot of opportunities for stakeholders as well as other organizations to help them develop their options and clarify their choices. One of the main platforms for such activities is stakeholders dialogue meetings that are carried out on a regular basis. • Do all stakeholders have equal representation within the dialogue and are their any silent voices? How could those voices become heard? The NSW is the Primary Stakeholder who has great importance for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons is framing the rules and regulations of the fishing business which includes all departments and other stakeholders too. Though all stakeholders do not have equal representation within the dialogue, yet they have every right to voice their opinions on any issue that is affecting them. • Are there key players who seem to dominate the development of the cohesive strategy? What is their modus operandi? Stakeholders are divided into two groups – 1) Regulatory Authorities – This group comprises of the Department of Agriculture and Australian Fisheries management authorities(AFMA) the NSW Department of Primary Industry and the Great Barrier Reef marine Park Authority. (Brent Jeffree, Sarah Coffey and Erik Cooney) These groups of people are the major stakeholders and are very important and powerful because they are the ones that lay down the rules and regulations for all the other stakeholders. They also see that the fishing industry and business runs on well oiled wheels. Fishing and consumers make up the second group of people who carry on fish farming in Australia, people who carry on recreational farming and we who are the fish consumers. In addition to the two main groups of stakeholders are Organizations who also form a part of the stakeholders group. This group consists of the Fish market Companies, the Green Peace Organization and the World Wildlife Funds (WWF) International partners – This group consists of Japan and Indonesia as international partners who carry out Whaling and illegal fishing across the border and the Canner- John West. • To what degree (if any) do the factors of power, urgency and legitimacy impact upon the saliency of each stakeholder? How would these relative saliencies direct the final outcome in a real-life dialogue? The first step towards creating good outcomes in a real – life dialogue is in and recognizing and understanding the various pros and cons of a situation in addition to the factors that would affect each stakeholders saliency and the overall impact on all the other stakeholders. All stakeholders have a good framework of partnerships who share the same opinions of giving a lot of importance to sustainable fishing and the impact it has on the broader fishing business. Problems relating to the generating and using of power, urgency and legitimacy are discussed among the different stakeholders during various communication programs that are held and necessary action is taken in this regard. A good example of this could be seen in the SFM stakeholder who ensures that all their employees, contractors, suppliers and buyers understand the importance of sustainability and hence spread these salient points through various training and communication programs. • To what extent do other participants respect your stakeholder perspective? Other participants fully well understand that sustainable fishing is vital to the fishing business and also the poor impact of unsustainable fishing. Therefore in this respect, any other stake holder’s advice or perspective is respected because they know that they are contributing to the good of all in the business. For example the SFM stakeholder supports and promotes quality seafood that is procured from ecologically sustained best practice aquaculture. Other participants are convinced of the stakeholders perspective by taking a look at the progress made and thereby come to respect it. Other participants show their respect by incorporating these best practices into all their future business activities. • Do the other participants seem willing to work towards some mutual consensus? Why or why not? Over-fishing All participants that include stakeholders and others always try to work in tandem with each other for smooth running of the fishing business. If any problem arises in one area, a mutual consensus is arrived at because failure to solve the problem would in turn affect the working in other areas. For example, Australia’s Bureau of Rural Sciences declared that almost half of Australia’s 70 principle fish species are overfished or fully fished (Bohm 2006). The species that are overfished rose drastically from 5 in 1992 to about 17 in the year 2004. Some of these endangered species which the consumer should avoid consuming are – Redfish, Blue Warehou, Eastern Gemfish, Torres Strait Rock Lobster, School Shark, Silver Trevally, Deep Sea Orange Roughy and the Commercial Scallop. All fish consumers do have a choice in exercising control over the demand factor in Fish markets. With respect to making the right choices, the Australian Marine Conservation Society published a guide on Australia’s Sustainable Seafood. It enumerated the great benefits of seafood which included crucial Omega 3 Fatty acids, vitamin D, proteins, minerals and iodine. In addition to this the consumption of fish more than once in a week helps to reduce the risk Airway hyper- responsiveness (AHR) According to (Seaton et al, 1994) ‘The consumption of fresh, oily fish more than once a week, showed that there was considerable decrease of asthma in children.’ To counter and solve the problems of over- fishing, the stakeholders dialogue (SD) greatly helps by bringing these various groups together and arriving at a reasonable consensus such as improved regulations on over-fishing and management of stocks so that there is considerable increase in the endangered species such as the Blue fin tuna and lobsters. http://www.thefishsite.cn/fishnews/7459/rise-quota And http://www.thefishsite.cn/fishnews/7303/lobster-industry-gets-boost Some of the other problems which are discussed through SD where the different organizations and stakeholders come to a unified consensus are damaging the eco- system, importing of fish, maintenance of fish quality, loss of jobs and decreasing revenue stream. Greenpeace Greenpeace is a name synonymous with environmental protection, and works independently, with the avowed aim of changing attitudes and behaviors, protecting and conserving the environment and finally, to promote peace. It is headquartered in Amsterdam Netherlands, and apart from the 150 staff which it employs worldwide, it has a support base of 2.8 million people. It has more than 28 regional offices and is recognized in more than 40 nations. It is committed to bringing to justice, environmental criminals and putting a halt to the degradation of the environment. Greenpeace had its first success when a team of activists, sailed from Vancouver, in 1971, to observe the underground nuclear testing by the US in Amchitka. Though they could not stop the tests, their dogged efforts were rewarded, when a year later bombings stopped and the zone became a bird sanctuary. Greenpeace vows to ensure that the earth capacity for nurturing its occupants is maintained, and when it finds itself in confrontation with groups opposed to this, it resorts to nonviolent and innovative ways of protest. It keeps itself uninfluenced by economic and political constraints by avoiding permanent alliances and eschewing financial help from selfishly motivated groups and individuals. The organization has achieved success in many of its environmental quests and was responsible for stopping the export of toxic waste to less developed nations. It helped to create awareness for an advanced system of managing world fisheries, a Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, banning the dumping radioactive and other pollutants into the sea, ending driftnet fishing in the high seas, and putting in place a 50 year moratorium on the exploitation of Antarctica’s mineral wealth. One of its greatest achievements is the ban on nuclear weapons testing of all kinds. All the above mentioned activities were done under the campaign‘ defending our oceans” since without water, life on earth will cease. Unsupervised fishing had skewed the ecological balance, and driftnet fishing had inadvertently killed more than 300.000 dolphins, porpoises and whales. Large-scale fishing practices had uprooted traditional ways and small communities living by the sea, risking their livelihood, while at the same time causing great damage to the environment. In its quest to ensure protection of our oceans, Greenpeace advocates sustainable human activities and expects governments to create marine reserves, prevent private fishing, bring down by catch and finally reduce capacity migration. It is vigorously pursuing the setting up of marine reserves in the international waters in the Pacific Ocean, to the north-east of Australia. One of the biggest opponents to the scheme is Japan, which fights against ban on whale catching and the fishing industry, and its greed for profits has led to unsustainable methods of fishing. Spills caused by oil tanker accidents was one of the greatest ecological threats to marine life, and Greenpeace has geared itself to address this issue by compiling a blacklist of vessels from official registers of IUU vessels and companies. Cleaning up the ocean after an oil spill can sometimes damage the environment even further. It is also persuading governments to look at sources of renewable energy so as to bring down dependence on fossil fuels, which are generally shipped across oceans. References Kaptein, M. & Van Tulder, R.. (2003) “Toward Effective Stakeholder Dialogue” Business and Society Review 108:2, 203-224. The Fish Site/ rise in quota http://www.thefishsite.cn/fishnews/7459/rise-quota Fish Site/ lobster industry gets boost http://www.thefishsite.cn/fishnews/7303/lobster-industry-gets-boost Judy Putt & Katherine Anderson. A national study of crime in the Australian fishing Industry, Research and Public Policy Series, No. 76 Japan exploits loophole to continue whaling in Antarctic sanctuary http://www.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?2166/Japan-exploits-loophole-to-continue-whaling-in-Antarctic-Sanctuary Solutions/ Greenpeace Australia Pacific http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/solutions Greenpeace Australian Pacific Issues http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues Defending our Oceans http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/oceans Pacific Islands act to save tuna/ Greenpeace Australia Pacific. http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and-events/news/overfishing/pacific-islands-act-to-save-tu Read More