Healthier Oceans, Healthier Economies

by OCEANA and ICTSD

Information Note 17

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What is the future of global fish consumption?  For millennia people have relied on the bounty of the seas to feed themselves and to support economic growth.  But the buildup in fleet capacity, particularly since World War II, and the deployment of increasingly powerful fishing technologies have depleted fish stocks worldwide. Fisheries resource management has been inadequate to forestall the global decline, with more than three quarters of all fish stocks now either fully exploited or over-exploited. Less than onefifth of the world’s fisheries should be considered capable of any growth in catch, but even this potential is short term.  Many scientists have warned of widespread collapses in fish populations within decades.

Reflecting the deterioration in fish stocks, the upward trend in global marine fish catch since 1950 has now ended and may even be in decline. As the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) points out, “the maximum long-term potential of the world marine capture fisheries has been reached.” The current global catch of about 85 million MT also disguises the changing composition of the total, with catches of smaller and less desirable fish reflecting the decline in dominant species.

While larger fish are generally caught for human consumption, stocks of smaller fish such as sardines and menhaden, on which the larger fish feed, are being used for feed or fertilizer. Well over one-third of fish by weight taken from the ocean are such so-called forage fish, most of which are fed to farmed fish and to pigs and poultry. This not only has an impact on other fish, birds and marine mammals that depend on the smaller fish for survival, but also inefficiently uses large quantities of fish that could be directly consumed for human food.

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