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EDITORIAL: "Translate the award winning Swedish book “Tyst hav” (Silent Sea) now!" |
 I was there when she received one of all her awards and I have read so much about the book that I almost thought I had read it already. I’m thinking about Isabella Lövin’s award-winning book Tyst Hav (“Silent Sea”) – on unsustainable fishing practices in the Baltic Sea and globally – which I have now finally read.
It is a great book, so far only available in Swedish, written almost like a thriller. It conveys its message almost as effectively as the foreign fishing fleets deplete coastal fish stocks of poor African countries. But did Lövin really get the science right or is she just a dooms-day saying activist? On the whole, the minor errors made don’t detract from the fact that the former cultural journalist (!) is remarkably up to date with research. She dives deep into everything from mis-guided government subsidies to unsustainable fishing practices while painting a vivid picture of the consequences of too many boats chasing too few fish and politicians who don’t pay attention to scientific advice.
Increased efficiency (trawls, boats, sonar, etc.) has in the past 50-years made it possible to remove fish after fish. The quantity of food fish, and their reproduction, reduces drastically. Many stocks in many places have collapsed, the most well-known is perhaps the cod stocks off Newfoundland, where cod fisheries went from a dominant sector of the economy to virtually non-existent in a few years. A moratorium on commercial fishing was declared in June 1992 and a small commercial inshore fishery was reintroduced in 1998, but catch rates declined and the fishery was closed indefinitely in 2003.
 The book also addresses EU’s aggressive fishing policy towards African countries, where fishing as much and as cheaply as possible seems to be the overarching goal. This is because EU has long subsidised its own fishing fleets, meaning that it now has a vast overcapacity. Since the EU’s own stocks are so severely depleted there is political pressure to secure as much access to West African waters as possible. The alternative is a policy that would eventually result in thousands of fishermen losing their jobs, some in politically sensitive areas. In this sense the fish-rich West African countries face a number of painful choices, similar to those facing many central African countries rich in timber. They really need the money now, but once the fish are gone, they are gone… with severe consequences for coastal communities that rely heavily on fish catch as a source of protein and as a livelihood.
Lövin herself says the depletion of the oceans is our time’s most shocking environmental disaster, more than the emissions of greenhouse gases, because the depletion could be put to an end tomorrow. “It aint rocket science, it only takes a few sensible political decisions. Even the EU Commission itself has said that Europe’s fishing policy is the worst and most unprofitable in the world”, as Lövin has put it.
I know I’m late. In Sweden almost everybody has paid their tribute to Lövin and her book ever since it was published in August 2007. But now it is high time to translate this important book! The marine fisheries crisis is international and can’t wait. Already last year Lövin said that the book should be complemented with more chapters, translated into English and adapted to the rest of Europe. It would be perfect if it was done now and published in conjunction with Sweden’s presidency of the EU later this autumn.
/Fredrik Moberg, Editor |
