Paul Sutherland's Toothfish Journey

Patagonia Toothfish (Chilean Sea Bass) Journey

January 28, 2005

Four years ago I became interested in the struggle for control of the marine resources in the Southern Ocean, the massive body of water encircling the globe below the Antarctic Convergence Zone. The most serious of these is the struggle to protect rapidly dwindling stocks of Chilean Sea Bass (Patagonian & Antarctic Toothfish). Encircling Antarctica, the Southern Ocean spans 11,000,000 square miles. Forty-five nations maintain research facilities or lay claim to marine resources in the region.

Several multi-thousand mile open ocean, multi-vessel pursuits of poacher vessels have taken place, lasting weeks, two in 2004. It is the stuff of movies; the literal ends of the earth with huge iceberg fields, navy cruisers, ocean-going tugs and navy tactical response teams boarding boats from helicopters through rope mesh set to block boarding parties.

The story behind the market development of the Chilean Sea Bass (just a marketing moniker for Patagonia toothfish, Dissosstichus eleginoides – try saying that three times) is one which has been played out before: man finds fish, creates a market, man overfishes the fish, fish stock crashes. In the late 1980s, “Patagonian toothfish,” an obscure, deepwater species first encountered off the tip of South America, began appearing on restaurant menus and in seafood cases as “Chilean Sea Bass.” In the intervening years, a flourishing international trade developed for Chilean Sea Bass, even though scientists have determined that the population in one heavily fished region declined by 60%.

In fact, there are so many vessels fishing the Southern Ocean that it is estimated that for every pound of legally caught Patagonia toothfish, an estimated five pounds are hooked illegally. And a dramatic increase in the wholesale price of the fish has pushed poachers to redouble their efforts on a relative of the Patagonia toothfish, the Antarctic toothfish. Now these stocks are believed to have begun to diminish.

The tremendous demand for toothfish has several considerable ancillary problems including the death every year of some 200,000 sea birds including the endangered wandering albatross, the largest sea bird in the world. The birds are attracted to the fishing vessels by the prodigious amounts of fish by-catch discarded, another substantial problem, and then when the baited long line hooks are lowered over the side the birds dive on them to take the bait, are caught on the hook and drown. More than 17 countries are involved, either legally or illegally, in the highly profitable fishery for Chilean Sea Bass. Unscrupulous ship owners flaunt legal quotas and regulations to take untold quantities of this fish. Fish are headed and gutted or cut into fillets and flash frozen at sea on factory ships. The cargo is then taken to port for sale. At dockside in rogue ports, brokers and wholesalers buy undocumented Chilean Sea Bass purportedly caught on the “high seas,” although almost all Chilean Sea Bass live in areas under international jurisdiction or in Exclusive Economic Zones claimed by one or more nations.

The impact of overfishing to the fish stocks is already clear: In 1996, vessels operating off Africa’s Cape Horn reported an average “catch per- hook” (the total weight of all Chilean Sea Bass caught divided by the number of hooks on the line) of roughly 1.4 kilograms (3 pounds). By 1998, overfishing had brought the catch-per-hook to less than 0.1 kilograms (1/3 pound). The situation developing in the Southern Ocean is the same as that which took place in the North Atlantic when the cod and swordfish stocks crashed. The boats then had to go farther to catch fewer and smaller fish and the same is happening now. The poachers have strained the Patagonia toothfish stocks to the limits and have now begun to work on its cousin the Antarctic toothfish.

In November of ’03 I traveled to Hobart Tasmania to attend the annual CCAMLR meeting at which anybody who is anybody in any way involved with the toothfish issue is found. CCAMLR (Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic’s Living Marine Resources) is a multi-national governmental body which among things allocates the annual quotas of toothfish to harvested from the different CCAMLR sectors into which the Southern Ocean has been divided. At that meeting I managed, with the help of a number of very generous people – too many to name here – met with quite a few influential people who agreed that a story about the situation would be a good thing, particularly if it was published in a major popular journal.

Following up after my return from Hobart I was able to secure unprecedented access making the story even more attractive to a large popular journal. I secured a grant to produce a portion of the story from the Packard Foundation and began shooting in May of ‘04. Since that time I have met twice with editors at the magazine and their interest has only increased.

So as the most compelling segments of the story are yet to be photographed, a new year brings a new expedition and adventure in the Southern Ocean. My assistant Sijmon de Waal and I will travel to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island to explore and document the toothfish fishery and research ongoing in both places.

In the Falklands we will photograph the commercial fishery in all its phases of operation and with luck manage some time in the water with the large number of birds that may be found at time around the fishing vessels. We will also attempt to document the behavior of the local whales and dolphins (Orca) that are reported to take toothfish off the longline as it is brought to the surface.

At South Georgia Island we will document the leading edge research of the British Antarctic Survey fisheries scientists who study the toothfish in SGI waters for the Government of South Georgia.

The toothfish fishery crisis is a story of the 21st century. It is a story about international high finance, dummy companies, laundered money, and economic piracy of national economic resources. Someone once said there will come a time when wars are fought over economic resources rather than territory (to paraphrase madly). It may have begun.

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