The United Nations report on the state of global fisheries in 2010 finds consumption bigger than ever, but sees no improvement in the situation for depleted fish stocks.
We consumed a record average of 17 kilograms per person per year, constituting about 15 percent of our protein intake, according to the 2010 “State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture” report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
The increased consumption, however, falls all but solely on farmed fish products: the report claims that close to one third of global fish stocks are either “overexploited, depleted or recovering and need to be urgently rebuilt”, the worst record since the 1970s.
“That there has been no improvement in the status of stocks is a matter of great concern,” said senior FAO fisheries expert Richard Grainger, one of the report’s editors. “The percentage of overexploitation needs to go down although at least we seem to be reaching a plateau.”
The European Union stands out as one of the worst offenders, according to FAO, with more than 70 percent of the stocks overfished.
Fish products continue to be the world’s most-traded of food commodities, worth a record $102 billion (€75 billion) in 2008, up nine percent from 2007.
With almost half a billion people, some eight percent of the world population, dependent on fish – caught or farmed – to make a living, illegal, unreported or unregulated fishing (IUU) remains a severe threat to national economies, not the least in developing countries.
IUU fishing is estimated to cost the world $10-23.5 billion (€7.3-17.3 billion) every year, the report says – roughly one fourth of the total revenues from legal fisheries. In West Africa the actual catches may be as much as 40 percent bigger than what is reported, according to FAO.