by Doug Woodring

A recent article in the Financial Times talked of a new “fish” fund by the asset manager Amundi (a merger of Credit Agricole’s and Soceite Generale’s asset management businesses). What a tragedy. It is similar to offering a rainforest depletion fund, or a real estate project in a panda wildlife refuge. Why? Because the world’s fish stocks have dwindled (not “are dwindling") by enormous amounts in the last 30 years. This comes with the advent of new technologies and capabilities for ocean going vessels and equipment that can sweep clean a section of water the size of a small state in a matter of hours. The world does not know what is going on because very few can track the worlds’ fishing fleets, many of which are new to the game and are excited to be able to catch some of what is left, and be able to sell that to the high-consumption countries of Asia.

In China, seafood consumption increased by 2kg between 2001 and 2007. That might not sound like a lot, but multiply that by 1.3bn, and then remember that global fish resources are already under threat. Now blend in the fact that there continues to be a large amount of by-catch for many products which gets wasted, and the fact that fish farming requires a multitude of small fish, just to feed the fish in the farm to become sellable to the market.

The fund states that as people become richer, they will eat healthier food, and will follow global trends like that of sushi. Sushi is easily one of the worst things that has happened to the planet, yet no one has realized it yet. The industry’s wealthy allure for vendors, and high-status image for consumers, has led bluefin tuna to be an endangered species. No, this is not “official”, because the strong fishing nations of the world blatantly lobbied against “endangered species status” at the recent UN Doha talks. The planet is 2/3 covered by water, and much of what lives underneath the surface, and how it lives, and survives, is still unknown. The ones who know are the fishermen, but they only know their own waters, and they know those waters are becoming devoid of fish. So, they find investors and government subsidies to buy larger boats, and mover farther afield to wipe new sections of ocean clean. In contrast, one of the good stories for the ocean, and proof that no-take fishing zones work incredibly well to let the ocean rebuild itself, is off the coast of Somalia. Yes, this is where the pirates are, and they started their activities originally to keep foreign fishing fleets away from their waters, as they did not have boats nearly the size of the oceangoing vessels that were raping their waters. Now that these waters are free of fishing boats, fishermen in neighboring Kenya are having some of the best catches in history. We should thank them for showing us this lesson -- but is anyone learning and watching?

For those of you out there looking to invest, think seriously about the social sustainability of this fund. You might think the growth trends are there for consumption, but the ocean’s ability to reproduce for all of those hungry consumers is already almost at its limit. The writing is on the wall, and right in the backyard. Do a Google search on the giant jellyfish in the Japan Sea. Jellyfish are like cockroaches of the ocean, and are the last thing able to survive in the ocean when it is about to die. They are a warning sign that the ocean in some places, is now almost dead, and these creatures are hundreds of pounds in size, “ruining” the fishing industry in that part of the world as they do damage to their nets. This is simply the ocean trying, with one last gasp, to tell us that enough is enough. Unfortunately, the Asian consumers do not even have the information yet to realize that much of what is coming from the sea is now polluted, regardless of where they are being caught. This information is now becoming more understood in the scientific world, but they have simply not been digested yet in the minds of those eating. Instead, the message is being "digested" in other ways.

With the growing trend toward socially responsible investing, it is shocking to see a new fund enter into the market that promotes the demise of an already very frail ecosystem. Just because there is growth in consumption and a market does not mean it is sustainable. In fact, it often means the opposite when natural resources are involved, particularly when the consuming population is in the billions. In a place like the ocean, where so little is still known, investing in this fund is like investing in companies that offer night hunting in the world’s wildlife reserves.

Image Credit: Alex Hofford Photography

Doug Woodring is the founder of Project Kaisei, a nonprofit dedicated to understanding and solving the problem of marine debris. To help Project Kaisei and the ocean, book your hotels on Expedia's new site - http://travelrelief.org/project-kaisei/ and click Project Kaisei. Kaisei gets 8 percent of all bookings, at no cost to you.