UN skeptical about B.C. study that says Chinese fisheries don’t report catches

VANCOUVER – Fisheries scientists at the University of British Columbia say Chinese fishing boats are catching billions of dollars worth of fish beyond their own waters every year, and much of it goes unreported.

But the report — which claims the Chinese catch is more than 12 times what is reported — was immediately criticized by an official with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Dirk Zeller, co-author of the UBC study recently published in the journal Fish and Fisheries, says his research indicates about 3.1 million tonnes are taken from African waters alone.

Zeller says there is a fairly high margin for error for the numbers but that they are definitely in the millions of tonnes, and he feels the Chinese are too secretive about their fisheries.

Richard Grainger, chief of statistics for the UN organization, says he knows the number of catches reported from China is too low but he still feels the figures in the UBC study are “highly unlikely.”

Grainger says a study from 2009 out of the University of California estimates up to 560,000 tonnes of unreported fish are taken from West African waters, a number he thinks is far more accurate than UBC’s 3.1 million.