State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2004 - Library

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Selected issues facing fishers and aquaculturists 85 authoritative source of scientific and vernacular names and characteristics. During the last decade, information regarding bony fish and cartilaginous fish has progressively been included in FishBase. 41 FAO has recently established a list of species of interest to the international fish trade and compiled current information on the authentication of fish species using techniques such as electrophoresis and DNA sequencing. This work supports the deliberations of the CCFFP on the identification of fish species for the standardization of fish and fishery products and on facilitating fish trade, especially exports from developing countries. Based upon available information, in particular in FishBase, the corresponding common names have been indicated, where available, in the different languages used in the different countries classified according to the regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, Near East, North America and the Southwest Pacific. It is to be noted that, according to most Codex standards for fishery products, “the name of the product declared on the label shall be the common or usual name applied to the species in accordance with the law and custom of the country in which the product is sold, and in a manner not to mislead the consumer”. FAO names and taxonomic codes are also indicated, based upon the Aquatic Science and Fisheries Information System (ASFIS). Nevertheless, this list is to be considered as a starting list which needs to be improved and taken forward to completion. FAO has called upon the collaboration of the member countries of Codex Alimentarius in undertaking this work. The list of species needs to be corrected and updated, in particular to verify whether all species are genuinely of commercial interest, to remove species that have no or little such interest and insert additional species as necessary. FUTURE PERSPECTIVE Molecular biology has made considerable progress in the identification of processed fishery products, including products that have undergone extensive technological treatment. It would be interesting to draw up an inventory of the analytical protocols used to identify species used in fishery products and to collate available reference data in the Codex member countries. A compilation or database of internationally recognized references of this nature could be useful for applying the inclusion procedures and for verifying product conformity with the labelling requirements of standards. Correct identification of the species and their origin requires the collaboration of the scientific community at an international level. During the first Trans-Atlantic Fisheries Technology (TAFT) meeting held in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2003, the creation of an international network of institutions to provide authentic reference samples was proposed; indeed, the main problem in authenticating a sample is often the lack of reference material at the location where the analysis is required. A useful way forward might be to construct a database or Web page containing a list of each species being used as food and providing the common names for each species, the location where each common name is indeed common, the scientific name, a description of the analyses performed on the species and a link to the results. The results page might present a graphic of how the results look (e.g. a photograph of the gel, or the scan) and, if possible, a table providing the values corresponding to the graphic. For each species, it would also be helpful to include a link to an institution from which samples of authentic material might be obtained The support of an internationally recognized institution such as FAO would be beneficial in establishing the infrastructure and the contacts among the relevant institutions in each country. FAO is currently examining the possibilities of assuming this responsibility in relation to the Aquatic Food Programme being developed under the direction of FAO Fishery Industries Division, keeping in mind the need to ensure improved access to scientific information on the part of developing countries. 41 Available at http://www.fishbase.org; accessed September 2004.
86 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2004 By fostering collaboration among international institutions and individual scientists, FAO expects that this programme will generate a peer-reviewed and multidisciplinary aquatic food safety and quality knowledge base. Its long-term goals are to support member countries in the areas of safety and quality (including authenticity) of food produced from aquatic species. Under this programme, the use of information technologies will be maximized to facilitate information dissemination and to enhance capacity-building initiatives in developing countries. A list of common names linked to the Aquatic Food Programme knowledge base containing scientific data could be useful for preparing and implementing a new Codex inclusion procedure and, more generally, for further work on species identification and for enhancing international fish trade transparency. Depleted stocks recovery: a challenging necessity THE ISSUE During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, thinkers such as Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Thomas Huxley assumed that the size of the oceans and the high fecundity of commercially exploited fish and shellfish meant that, under the conditions prevailing at that time, the risk of extinction of fishery resources was low. These scientists overestimated the ocean’s resilience to fishing and underestimated both the future demand and the potential progress in fishing efficiency. However, the fact that local natural renewable resources could be depleted through wasteful competition and lack of ownership has been known literally for centuries, 42 and by the end of the 1960s the “tragedy of the commons” was already common knowledge. 43 The problem of overfishing was already recognized by the first FAO Fisheries Technical Committee in 1946 and was flagged recurrently in the successive FAO fisheries conferences, for example in Vancouver (1973), Rome (1984) and Reykjavik (2002), to cite just a few major events. The depletion issue was flagged again at the start of the twenty-first century in The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2002, which indicated that “An estimated 25 percent of the major marine fish stocks … are underexploited or moderately exploited … About 47 percent of the main stocks or species groups are fully exploited … 18 percent of stocks or species groups are reported as overexploited … The remaining 10 percent have become significantly depleted, or are recovering from depletion.” Among the stocks considered depleted, the Northeast Atlantic and the Mediterranean and Black Seas are the areas with stocks having the greatest need for recovery, followed by the Northwest Atlantic, the Southeast Atlantic, the Southeast Pacific and the Southern Ocean areas. The depletion of stocks contravenes the basic conservation requirement of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and of sustainable development. It is also contrary to the principles and management provisions adopted in the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. It affects the structure, functioning and resilience of the ecosystem, threatens food security and economic development, and reduces long-term social welfare. The demand for fish as human food may reach around 180 million tonnes by 2030 and then neither aquaculture nor any terrestrial food production system could replace the protein production of the wild marine ecosystems. The Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development specifically urges the need to “Maintain or restore stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield with the aim of achieving these goals for depleted stocks on an urgent basis and where possible not later than 2015.” Considering the trends since 1946, this time-frame certainly represents a high-order challenge. 42 S.M. Garcia and J. Boncoeur. 2004. Allocation and conservation of ocean fishery resources: connecting rights and responsibilities. Paper presented at the 4th World Fisheries Congress, Vancouver, Canada, May 2004, as an opening to the session on Allocation and Conservation. 43 G. Hardin. 1968. The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162: 1243–1248.
Page 3 and 4:
Produced by the Editorial Productio
Page 5 and 6:
CONTENTS Foreword Acknowledgements
Page 7 and 8:
vii TABLES Table 1 World fisheries
Page 9 and 10:
ix Figure 23 Total protein supply b
Page 11 and 12:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The State of World
Page 13 and 14:
xiii IATTC Inter-American Tropical
Page 15 and 16:
3 WORLD REVIEW OF FISHERIES AND AQU
Page 17 and 18:
World review of fisheries and aquac
Page 19 and 20:
Page 21 and 22:
Page 23 and 24:
Page 25 and 26:
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Page 33 and 34:
Page 35 and 36:
Page 37 and 38:
Page 39 and 40:
Page 41 and 42:
Page 43 and 44:
Page 45 and 46: World review of fisheries and aquac
Page 79 and 80: PART 2 SELECTED ISSUES FACING FISHE
Page 81 and 82: 70 The State of World Fisheries and
Page 95: 84 The State of World Fisheries and
Page 111 and 112: PART 3 HIGHLIGHTS OF SPECIAL FAO ST
Page 113 and 114: 104 The State of World Fisheries an
Page 147 and 148:
PART 4 OUTLOOK
Page 149 and 150:
142 The State of World Fisheries an
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
show all

State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2004 - Library

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?