At a time when we are mobilizing to preserve biodiversity and advocate sustainable and reasonable food, when many campaigns denounce waste, when the gap between rich and poor is growing worldwide and hunger is still rife, an FAO report compares two unprecedented figures. 30 % of the fish caught on average in the world are destroyed or thrown back into the sea and, at the same time, on average a third of edible fish species are overfished. We are walking on our heads.
Saccording to a report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), one in three fish caught in the world never reaches a plate, whether it is thrown overboard or rots before being eaten.
Waste
FAO reports that 35% of the global catch is being wasted. About a quarter of these losses are by-catches or discards, mainly from trawlers, where unwanted fish are discarded dead because they are too small or are an unwanted species. But most losses are due to a lack of knowledge or equipment, such as refrigeration or ice-making, needed to keep fish fresh.
FAO has worked with developing countries to reduce losses, including the use of raised traps for drying fish, which reduced fish losses from Lake Tanganyika in Africa by 50 %. Around the Indian Ocean, improved facilities for the management of crab fisheries have reduced losses by 40 %.
Main source of food
Fish is a crucial source of food for billions of people around the world, but overfishing is rampant in some regions, with two-thirds of species being overfished in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and South-East Pacific. The analyses Previous reports, which include estimates of illegal fishing, indicate that wild fish stocks are declining faster than FAO data suggest and that half of the world's oceans are now being exploited industrially.
" Since 1961, annual growth in world fish consumption has been twice as high as population growth, demonstrating that the fisheries sector is essential to achieving FAO's goal of a world without hunger and malnutrition. "said to the Guardian José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of FAO. Many challenges remain, he said, but recent initiatives to crack down on illegal fishing will mark a "turning point" for long-term conservation.
Overfishing
The FAO report presents the scale of world fishing: it employs 60 million people and there are 4.6 million fishing vessels on the planet. This arsenal is a cause for concern in many places, FAO says, with too many boats hunting too few fish.
The consequence? The number of overexploited species has tripled in the last 40 years. The report also indicates that climate change will drive fish from warm tropical waters, where nations are often particularly dependent on seafood, to more temperate regions.
Source: FAO, The Guardian
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