The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released its annual “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture,” a report analyzing whether the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are being met.
The extensive report goes into detail on the total catch and production of the world’s fisheries and aquaculture. The report highlights a continuous increase in the percentage of overfished stocks in the world’s oceans, but also has recognized the fast-growing aquaculture practices around the globe.
“The fraction of marine fish stocks fished within biologically sustainable levels has exhibited a decreasing trend, from 90.0 percent in 1974 to 66.9 percent in 2015,” states the report. “In contrast, the percentage of stocks fished at biologically unsustainable levels increased from 10 percent in 1974 to 33.1 percent in 2015, with the largest increases in the late 1970s and 1980s.”
Of the 16 statistical areas that the FAO covers, the Mediterranean and Black Sea, Southeast Pacific, and Southwest Atlantic had the highest percentage of assessed stocks fished at unsustainable levels.
The World Wildlife Foundation released a statement soon after the report calling for increased efforts to stop unsustainable fishing and to curtail illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU).
“This steady creep upwards in overfishing must be seen as a clear warning that despite many efforts to curb this serious problem, clearly, we are not yet winning the battle,” said Michele Kuruc, head of WWF’s delegation to the ongoing FAO Fisheries Committee meeting.
The report also points out that many of the countries with fish and seafood as the highest percentage of their diet are developing nations, which can often struggle to implement sustainable fishing practices.
“A major challenge to implementation of the 2030 Agenda is the sustainability divide between developed and developing countries which has partially resulted from increased economic interdependencies, coupled with limited management and governance capacity in developing countries,” states the report.
Forming a sustainable fisheries plan is important to the food security of those countries, as a well-maintained fishery has been proven to be beneficial to total landings in the long run.
“Experience has proved that rebuilding overfished stocks can produce higher yields as well as substantial social, economic and ecological benefits,” the report said.
Not all the news was negative. The report found that the proportion of stocks fished within biologically sustainable levels increased from 53 percent in 2005 to 74 percent in 2017 in the United States, and from 27 percent in 2004 to 69 percent in 2015 in Australia.
Aquaculture, too, was found to have significant positive growth in production. Once a small percentage of the world’s fish production, aquaculture represented 47 percent of the 171 million metric tons of fish produced in 2016. If non-food uses, such as for fish oils and fishmeal, are excluded, that number climbs to 53 percent of all production.
Of that production, China produced more farmed food fish than the rest of the world combined, as it has every year since 1991. Other major producers in 2016 were India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Norway.
The total value of fisheries and aquaculture production was estimated at USD 362 billion (EUR 308 billion), of which aquaculture makes up USD 232 billion (EUR 197 billion), or roughly 64 percent of the total.
Photo courtesy of FAO
