Rich countries pay zombie fishing boats $5 billion a year to plunder the seas
The industrial fleet that now drags the high seas for fish has a combined engine power 10 times stronger than it did in 1950. Its nets are so huge that theyre sometimes big enough to hold 12 jumbo jets. And it is largely thanks to this all-out assault on high-seas fishing stocks that two-thirds of those stocks (paywall) are at the brink of collapseor well past the edge.
But instead of discouraging this trend, rich countries are paying those vessels to overfish like theres no tomorrow. Japan, China, the US, the EU and other countries pay $27 billion to subsidize these vessels, according to a report (pdf) by the Global Ocean Commission, an independent body of international leaders focused on ocean conservation policy. Of that, $5 billion alone goes on fuel subsidies from rich countries to industrial fishing fleets.
Without the subsidies, most of these businesses would fail. So thoroughly have industrial fleets overfished the seas that they couldnt afford the fuel to travel the ever-increasing distance needed to catch the same amount of fish if their governments didnt lavish public funds upon them.
In economics, youd call these zombiesunprofitable companies that would fail if governments didnt prop them up. There are two big problems with zombies. First, they take resources that could go to support new, productive companies. And by subsidizing zombies, governments allow them to keep prices low, driving productive companies out of business.
more
http://qz.com/225432/rich-countries-pay-zombie-fishing-boats-5-billion-a-year-to-plunder-the-seas/