Indonesian small-scale fishers

FAO / F. Botts

Before the 26 December tsunami, Asia's fishing fleets were increasingly depleting nearshore resources, leading to intense competition and even violent conflict between small-scale and industrial fishers.

In his letter to Nature, Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia's Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, Canada, says that rebuilding Asia's fisheries without structural reforms will only worsen their problems.

Pauly says international aid and failed agricultural and social policies have contributed to the unsustainability of regional fisheries. He argues that rebuilding fisheries affected by the tsunami without reforms will make things worse. Instead, he says, emphasis should be given to generating land-based jobs and to providing basic education and training to increase the social mobility of local fishers.