The fishing industry plays a key role ensuring food security, providing direct and indirect employment and a livelihood for hundreds of millions of people across the globe and therefore its sustained existence is vital. The worldwide fishing industry employs around 200 million people, generating $80 billion a year. But a hefty chunk of the industry’s revenues come from subsidies, which are currently estimated at around $34 billion a year. Those most responsible for subsidizing the fishing industry are Japan (spending $5.3 billion a year), the European Union ($3.3 billion) and China ($3.1 billion), according to activist group Oceana.
Experts have cautioned for quite some time now about over fishing and the depletion of seafoods and the need to ensure that sustainable methods of fishing are adhered to.
Despite the fact that the sea takes up 95 percent of the world’s living space, just 7 percent of it has been properly studied and sampled, according to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
We don’t even know how many species of marine life even live in the world’s oceans. But the fish we do know about, we are particular keen on catching to eat.
The problem, we are told, is we are catching too many of them, and we have a finite time period available to us to fix the problem before it is too late. In the past 20 years, the UN says we have managed to double both the percentage of fish stocks facing collapse — from 15 percent in 1987 to 30 percent last year — as well as the amount that are overexploited, from 20 per cent to around 40 percent.
UNEP’s report, “In Dead Water” released in January, says as much as 80 percent of the world’s main fish catch species have now been “exploited beyond or close to their harvest capacity”. We are now being told that if we carry on fishing at the rate we do, by 2048 all of the species that we currently fish for food will have disappeared.
In words not to be taken lightly, UNEP is now warning that unless governments around the world enforce some radical changes right now, we could be in the process of witnessing “a collapsing ecosystem”.
“Should that happen, it would mean nothing short of a catastrophe, with far reaching consequences for marine life — and human life. One billion people around the world rely on fish as their main source of protein, while 2.6 billion of us get at least 20 percent of our animal protein intake from it.”
The situation is becoming even more critical in the face of growing global consumption as a result of a larger population and greater incomes.
Global consumption of seafood products has doubled over the past 30 years, driven by population growth and rising income levels. The United States, European Union, and Japan are the “Big Three” consumers for 80% of all seafood traded internationally. • In the past 35 years, the number of people fishing in the world has doubled and most of the growth has taken place in Asia due to the growth of acquaculture and poor government enforcement of restrictions on over-fishing. • Over 70% of the world’s fish species are already either fully exploited (producing catched close to their maximum sustainable limits) or over-exploited. • In the last decade in the North Atlantic region, commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock, and flounder have fallen by as much as 95%. • In 2003, Canadian researchers estimated that in the past 50 years, over-fishing has eliminated 9 out of 10 large predators such as tuna, swordfish, cod, and sharks. • An annual average of 7.3 million tons of fish is thrown back into the sea dead or dying because they are damaged, of the wrong species, under the legal landing size, or over a vessel’s quota of fish. This figure is believed to underestimate the number of marine mammals, turtles, and seabirds also caught as by-catch.
Here in Guyana the government recognised the importance of sustainable fishing a long time ago and through the Ministry of Agriculture has taken appropriate measures in this regard. One of which was the implementation of the off season for fishing vessels and the compulsory acquisition of Turtle Excluding Devices (TEDs) for fishing vessels.
The fishing industry historically has been one of our leading industries and today it has expanded tremendously and as such we have many seafood processing facilities which do not only supply the local market but are exporting their products as well.
However, the full potential of this industry has not been realised as yet and with continued good management it will certainly climb greater heights and become an even more significant player in the national economy.