State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2004 - Library

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The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2004
Table 7
World fishers and fish farmers by continent
1990 1995 2000 2001 2002
(thousands)
Total
Africa 1 917 2 238 2 585 2 640 2 615
North and Central America 767 770 751 765 762
South America 769 814 784 760 770
Asia 23 654 28 552 30 770 31 493 32 821
Europe 654 864 821 796 746
Oceania 74 76 86 80 81
World 27 835 33 314 35 797 36 534 37 795
Of which fish farmers 1
Africa ... 105 112 115 111
North and Central America 53 74 74 69 65
South America 16 88 92 92 93
Asia 3 698 6 003 8 503 8 720 9 502
Europe 11 36 37 39 39
Oceania neg. 1 5 5 5
World 3 778 6 307 8 823 9 040 9 815
1
Data for 1990 and 1995 were reported by only a limited number of countries and therefore are not comparable with
those for the following years.
neg. = negligible; ... = data not available.
has been falling yearly since 1991, reaching a low of 243 320 people in 2002. The vast
majority (72 percent) of these fishers were self-employed workers, as is commonly the
case in the fishery profession.
The fishing workforce in most developed economies is advancing in age, mainly
because of the profession’s decreasing attractiveness to younger generations. For
instance, in Japan, 95 750 male fishers (or 47.2 percent of the total) were 60 years of
age or older in 2002. The share of this age class has recently been increasing at a rate
of 1 percent per year and in 2002 was nearly 25 percent above the figure of 20 years
previously. By comparison, the younger group of workers (under 40 years of age),
which represented one-quarter of the total number of marine fishery workers in 1982,
had decreased to 12.1 percent of the 243 320 people engaged in marine fishery by
2002.
Complete data on the numbers of aquaculture workers worldwide are not
available. The partial statistics that are available indicate an increase of about 8 percent
per year since 1990, with part of the increase accounted for by improved reporting by
countries. Since 2000, however, in many developed countries, figures on employment
in aquaculture indicate that a levelling-off has started to occur, owing to a parallel
slowdown of the rate of growth of farmed fish and shellfish production. After peaking
in 1995, then decreasing for several years, employment in fish farming in Norway has
been stable since 1998. In 2002, 3 457 people were employed, one-third of whom
worked in hatcheries; men (accounting for 90 percent of the total) are employed
mainly in salmon and trout production, while female workers, whose employment
has been stable for many years, are largely employed in the production of fry and
fingerlings rather than fish for consumption.
In countries where fishing and aquaculture are less prominent in the economy,
comparative employment and income statistics at this level of detail are often not
easily available. In many developing countries, which have the largest number of