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This is an Archive Page. For a more up-to-date briefing on the state of the world's fisheries (sorry, things haven't gotten better) visit the Overfishing pages at oceans.greenpeace.org AMAZING FACTS ABOUT THE GLOBAL FISHERIES CRISIS |
1. The world's marine catch has increased more than four times in the past 40 years -- from 18.5 million tons in 1950 to 82.5 million tons by 1992. This staggering growth has resulted in overfishing and wasteful, destructive fishing practices worldwide which now threaten the lives of hundreds of millions of people who are vitally dependent on fishing for food and livelihoods. They face resource depletion, competition from industrial and distant water fleets, and loss of access to traditional marine food supplies.
2. Seven out of ten (69%) of the oceans' commercially targeted marine fish stocks are fished beyond ecologically safe limits, being either fully or heavily exploited, overexploited, depleted, or very slowly recovering from collapse after previous overfishing.
3. One-quarter of the planet's biological diversity is in danger of extinction within the next 30 years. In the ocean environment, commercial fishing stands as one of the greatest biodiversity threats.
4.Overfishing damages much more than fish populations. Extracting too many fish from an ecosysten can reduce the survival chances of other predators in the marine food web, including populations of marine mammals, seabirds, turtles, sharks and a host of other species. Large-scale commercial fishing is robbing them of their food source -- fish.
5. The depletion of food supplies is not the only threat to marine wildlife posed by fishing operations. Many millions of animals other than fish are severly injured or killed each year through deadly interactions with fishing gear. For instance, millions of dolphins have died in Tuna purse seine nets in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. An estimated 44,000 albatrosses are killed each year by Japanese tuna longliners.
6. One-quarter (25%) of all the fish pulled from the sea never make it to market. 27 million tons of unwanted fish catch are thrown back each year on average. Most don't survive. Twenty seven million tons of wasted fish represent more than half of all fish produced annually from marine capture fisheries for direct human consumption. It is also about equivalent to the predicted shortfall in fish for human consumption expected by the year 2000 (an anticipated shortfall of some 20 to 30 million tons means fish is fast becoming a luxury food only the relatively few can afford!).
7. Since 1970, the world's fishing fleet has expanded twice as fast as world catches. As a result, excess fishing capacity has reached alarming proportions (for instance, the fishing fleet in China is now around six times the size it was in 1979). Today, there are over three-and-a-half million fishing vessels operating in the world's oceans, all engaged in a desperate competition over dwindling supplies of fish. Little wonder then that the aggregate global fleet of over a million industrial and semi-industrial vessels has been operating at an annual loss of some $50-billion each year -- a collosal loss that is being compensated by government subsidies to vessel owners, and all at taxpayers' expense.
8.With so many fishing vessels in the world, massive fleets are migrating away from overfished areas and are stalking the planet on a desperate search for less exploited fishing grounds. They are like an invasion armada, disrupting the lives of millions of tradtional fishing peoples, especially in less developed countries, destroying fish stocks and eco systems wherever they go.
But coastal peoples are fighting back: Millions of fisherfolk from coastal villages in India
have been staging national srtikes to overturn the national government's policy of licensing thousands of these foreign fishing vessels to fish in Indian waters.
9. Fish is an important part of the daily diets in many nations, providing roughly 40 per cent of the protein consumed by nearly two-thirds of the world's population. For example, over a billion people throughout Asia depend on fish and seafood as their major source of animal protein. Yet, of the approximately 78 million tons produced from marine capture fisheries each year, only 50 million tons is available as food for direct human consumption; the remainder, approximately 28 million tons, is reduced to fishmeal which is fed to livestock such as pigs and poultry, and to other creatures like farmed trout, shrimp and mink for luxury markets. Odd, when we live in a world where a billion people suffer from malnutrition.
10. Worldwide, about 13 million people make all or a major part of their living from fishing. More than 10 million of them work in coastal waters on little boats powered by paddles, sails or sometimes outboard motors, with only a few crew members. Together with their immediate families they comprise some 50 million people directly dependent on fishing for their livelihoods. Another 150 million people are employed on land processing fish and servicing fleets. When the fish go, the jobs do too. In one such calamity, more than 20,000 Canadian fishworkers living in Newfoundland lost their jobs literally overnight when the government banned all fishing for cod in order to protect what remained of badly depleted stocks.
11.Greenpeace is not opposed to commercial fishing. Greenpeace supports ecologically responsible fishing. To achieve this, sweeping institutional, social and economic changes are required. Ecologically safe fishing levels must be set in a precautionary way that takes into account our incomplete understanding about the workings of complex ecosystems. This, and other keystone principles have been brought together in the " Greenpeace Principles for Ecologically Responsible Fisheries".
One of the world's biggest trawl nets could encircle more than a dozen "jumbo jet" Boeing 747 aircraft at its opening. The net's circumference measures a mammoth 2048mtrs, producing a mouth opening area of 22,900 sq. mtrs. Ships deploying such nets have a capture rate of about ten tons of fish per hour. A modern 'factory' supertrawler can be longer than a football field and capable of catching and processing into various products up to 200 tons of fish daily. Eighty percent of the world's marine catch is produced by just 20 fishing nations.