Regulating Fishing

The regulating of international fishing is utterly disastrous, both in terms of sustainability and in terms of labor rights. With the rise of documented cases of slavery in the fishing industry around the world, some are worried that calls to monitor for labor conditions will undermine the already tenuous monitoring for sustainability, claiming that this is an example of the perfect being the enemy of the good. I reject that argument because I don’t think you can have sustainability to the natural world in a society where exploitation within the human species is rampant. Those who are happy to enslave workers are also going to be happy to cheat fishing limits. I think you have to consider them both together. What I found interesting about the linked article is that it is trying to think through some of these problems, but completely ignores what would actually move us toward accountability in both areas, which is holding people higher on the food chain legally accountable for their suppliers. Third-party monitoring and certification are not inherently evil, but they are inherently limited, dealing with a symptom rather that the disease. If you want to stop exploitation of labor and of nature, you have to go higher up the supply chain. It’s only when we start holding the buyers and the stores who buy from them accountable that you see the downward pressure that will actually clean up these practices.