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Overfishing Has Reached Staggering Proportions
The Natural Resource Defense Council, a major US environmental organization reports:
70% of the world's commercially-important marine fish stocks are fully fished, overexploited or depleted. Most of the planet's major marine fisheries have experienced significant losses in yield due to depletion.
83% of assessed marine fish populations in the U.S. are classified as fully fished or overexploited.
The availability of fishery products on a per capita basis started to decrease in 1970 and the gap between supply and potential demand is increasing rapidly.
At current rates of world population growth, the total world supply of food fish (marine, freshwater and aquaculture) will have to grow 25% by 2010 to maintain today's per capita supply.
A total of 28.7 million tons of "non-target" fish are caught annually in world marine fisheries, 95% of which is discarded, usually dead or dying. This colossal waste is equivalent to more than one quarter of the total marine catch. More than one third of this waste occurs in shrimp fisheries.
Untold numbers of marine mammals, turtles, seabirds, and other marine wildlife are caught and killed in fishing gear. For example, tens of thousands of sea turtles drown each year after being caught in shrimp trawls, longlines and other fishing gear. Up to 10% of the world population of wandering albatross are killed each year by the commercial longline industry.
29 million tons of marine fish goes to the production of pet and other animal food, fish meal, oil and other industrial products.
Roughly two-thirds of commercially-caught marine fish spend part of their life cycles in coastal waters, which are increasingly threatened by habitat loss and pollution. 80% of marine pollution is estimated to come from land based sources. Development has destroyed an estimated 50% of all coastal wetlands -- which provide essential fish habitat -- worldwide.
Government subsidies in the fisheries sector are estimated to be roughly $50 billion per year, according to FAO.
If marine fish are properly managed and fish populations allowed to rebuild, the annual world catch could increase by some 20 million tons, according to FAO. That is enough to meet the projected population-driven new demand for food fish by the year 2010.
The Commerce Department estimates that restoring depleted fisheries in the U.S. could double commercial fishing revenues, create 300,000 new jobs, and have a $25 billion impact on the overall economy.