Sustainability focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations. Sustainability encourages companies to make decisions in a way that focuses on the long-term impact of these activities. These decisions are made in terms of the environment, social and human impact. Sustainability has become an important part of corporate ethics and therefore it is our goal to act in the most sustainable way as possible and to have a positive impact on other fishing companies. We are trying to achieve this by being the founding member of the Aqua-waves Marine Stewardship Council.
The sustainability goals of the company are:
- No fishing activities in the coastal waters
- The use of responsible fishing practices
- Limiting our catch to sustainable yield
Externalities refers to a cost or benefit incurred or received by a third party. However, the third party has no control over the creation of this specific benefit or cost. These externalities can either be positive or negative. The benefits and costs can be both private, to a specific individual or organisation, or social, meaning it can affect society as a whole. Tragedy of the Commons is a problem in which every individual has an incentive to consume a resource at the expense of every other individual with no way to exclude anyone from consuming. This results in over consumption and under investment and therefore the depletion of the resource. As the demand for a certain product becomes greater than the supply, every individual who consumes an additional unit harms other who can no longer have the benefits of that specific product. The tragedy of the commons arises when people neglect the welfare of society in the pursuit of personal gain.
Why are we a proud founding member of the Marine Stewardship Council?
We are the proud founding member of this council as we realized that something needed to happen to help protect the fishing industry.
In the first fishing trip, where there were no regulations, only three of the companies made a profit and most of the companies had a large bank overdraft. Some of the companies that are involved did not catch any fish and there was also a lot of coastal fishing which is not good for the future sustainability of the fishing industry.
In the second fishing trip the government put regulations in place to try and increase the number of anchovies in the ocean. During this time none of the companies made a profit, however some of the bank overdrafts were reduced by a fairly large amount. The amount of fish that were caught was decreased by an exceptionally large amount. In the first fishing trip a total number of 976 fish were caught while in the second fishing trip only 269 fish were caught. This is a decrease of 707 fish; therefore, this shows that the government regulations that were put in place were successful in achieving their goal. Due to these regulations the companies drastically reduced the number of ships that they purchased.
In the third fishing trip is where the industry regulations were put into place. For the most part during this time most of the companies made a profit. There were only three companies that made a loss. This is a very good improvement from the first two fishing trips. In the first fishing trip only three of the companies made a profit, and in the second fishing trip all of the companies made a loss. The amount of fish that were caught increased to 2314, all of the fish were caught in the deep sea. As the new industry regulations doesn’t allow the catching of fish in the coastal areas.
Why is it important for our future sustainability that this initiative is a success?
It is important as we want to be able to have fish for our future generations and therefore it is important to introduce regulations to help the fish population increase. In modern times most companies are only concerned about short term profit and success and they do not care about the sustaining the use of a resource for the future. With the implementation if these industry regulations it helps with the future sustainability as well as still keeping the companies at a level where they can be profitable.
E4.1 Anchor Management Ltd. 