Adoption of best fishing practices to mitigate impact on marine ecosystems.

(Quito, May 2012.) – CAF - Latin American development bank - and World Wildlife Fund Inc. (WWF) signed an agreement to prepare a technical-economic feasibility study with the National Federation of Small Scale Fisheries Cooperatives of Ecuador (FENACOPEC), and the Ecuadorian Eastern Pacific Fisheries School on replacing fishing craft and gear with equipment that is more friendly to the marine ecosystem, including a financing scheme to allow the Ecuadorian government to implement the project along the entire Pacific coast.

"After implementation in coordination with the national authorities, the initiative has the potential to be replicated in other fishing nations of the region (Southeast Pacific) in an effort to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants of the coastal area, and restore the health of the marine ecosystems on which they depend " Hermann Krützfeldt, CAF director representative in Ecuador, said.

For small-scale fishermen, longline is one of the most popular types of fishing gear, consisting of a line several kilometers in length with a number of baited hooks to catch tuna, billfish, dorado and other fish. The system is so effective that it catches a large quantity of unwanted fish. Each year over four million sharks, sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals are caught by longlines in the Pacific Ocean as a result of by-catches and many of them are returned dead or dying to the sea.

The WWF is working with other sectoral actors in a program to reduce by-catch. In 2004, they began to introduce a circular hook which reduces sea turtle mortality by up to 90%. These hooks are designed to prevent unnecessary harm to the unwanted catch (especially sea turtles) by making it easy to extract them. These animals can then be returned to the water with no great harm.

With the proposal for an effective financing scheme - result of the feasibility study that CAF is supporting, - the FENACOPEC partners along with other organized members of the small scale fisheries sector, individually or collectively, would be able to apply for loans from interested financial institutions to finance efficient fishing gear and fishing boats with better environmental standards. Such a change would improve the quality of life of coastal peoples and reduce the impact on marine ecosystems.