Protect Fish Stocks

This is the 2007 draft on fish stocks. There is no newer version on this issue, because it is no longer included in the survey.

Fish delivers less than one tenth of food globally.

Affected people and foundations of life: Fish provides 15.5% of the animal protein consumed worldwide, including essential amino acids, and about 5% of all proteins. In coastal countries with less alternative sources for animal protein, like Bangladesh or Senegal, fish contributes to, or exceeds, 50% of total animal protein intake. (FAO [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations] 2007b, 35f. [and following]) More than 1 billion people rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein.
At least one quarter of important commercial fish stocks are over-harvested or significantly depleted, constraining their regeneration. The biomass of fish targeted in fisheries has already been reduced by 90%. (MA [Millennium Assessment] 2005, 39, 15.) Only 22% of the world's fisheries are sustainable (UN [United Nations] 2007, 23). In most countries of the South fish consumption per capita has declined (MA 2005, 13). 27% of fish production bases on aquaculture. An increasing portion is produced by using fish meal and therefore is not a source but a sink of nutrients (MA 2005, 105).

Targets/goals: to maintain or respectively restore stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (World Summit on Sustainable Development: UN 2002, § 31a).

Trend: 0/− Most data show a stagnating or negative trend.

Measures: reduction, regulation and checks of marine fisheries, regulatory systems for aquaculture, marine protected areas (MA 2005, 21).

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Annotations: For numeric names the short scale is used:
1 billion = one thousand million = 10⁹ = 1 000 000 000

Sources

• FAO 2007b – Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006.  
• MA 2005 – Millennium Assessment: Ecosystems and Human Well-being; Synthesis; A Report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.  (Written on behalf of the UN, coordinated by UNEP [United Nations Environment Programme].) Washington.
• UN 2002 – United Nations, World Summit on Sustainable Development: Plan of Implementation.  
• UN 2007 – United Nations: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2007.   [Published by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs DESA – June 2007.]

Draft (2007)