In Dead Water: Merging of climate change with - UNEP
In Dead Water: Merging of climate change with - UNEP
In Dead Water: Merging of climate change with - UNEP
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THE SEA – ONE OF THE LARGEST<br />
FOOD FACTORIES ON THE PLANET<br />
The World’s oceans provide one <strong>of</strong> the largest (not domesticated)<br />
food reserves on the planet. Overall, seafood provided more<br />
than 2.6 billion people <strong>with</strong> at least 20 per cent <strong>of</strong> their average<br />
per capita animal protein intake (FAO, 2006). Capture fisheries<br />
and aquaculture supplied the world <strong>with</strong> about 106 million<br />
tonnes <strong>of</strong> food fish in 2004, providing an apparent per capita<br />
supply <strong>of</strong> 16.6 kg (live weight equivalent), which is the highest<br />
on record (FAO, 2006). Capture fishery production has, however,<br />
remained static, and it is only the rise in aquaculture, now<br />
accounting for 43% <strong>of</strong> the total consumption, that enabled this<br />
increase (FAO, 2006). Worldwide, aquaculture has grown at an<br />
average rate <strong>of</strong> 8.8 per cent per year since 1970, compared <strong>with</strong><br />
only 1.2 per cent for capture fisheries in the same period. Despite<br />
fishing capacity now exceeding current harvest four-fold,<br />
marine capture has declined or remained level since 2000,<br />
reflecting over-harvest in many regions (Hilborn et al., 2003;<br />
FAO, 2006). A major reason why the decline has not become<br />
more evident is likely because <strong>of</strong> advances in fishing efficiency,<br />
shift to previously discarded or avoided fish, and the fact that<br />
the fishing fleet is increasingly fishing in deeper waters.<br />
The overall decrease in landings is mostly related to declines<br />
in fishing zones in the Southeast and Northwest Pacific oceans<br />
(FAO, 2006). <strong>In</strong> addition, the living resources in the World’s<br />
oceans, including those so essential to mankind, are not randomly<br />
or evenly distributed. They are largely concentrated in<br />
small regions/areas and hotspots, <strong>of</strong> which continental shelves<br />
and seamounts – under-water mountains – play a crucial role.<br />
The safety <strong>of</strong> the World’s oceans as a food source for future generations<br />
is however insecure. Over the last decades, there has<br />
been continuing exploitation and depletion <strong>of</strong> fisheries stocks.<br />
Undeveloped fish reserves have disappeared altogether since<br />
the mid-1980s. During the last decades, there has been a continued<br />
decline in fish resources in the ‘developing’ phase, and<br />
an increase <strong>of</strong> those in the depleted or over-exploited phase.<br />
This trend is somewhat <strong>of</strong>fset by the emergence <strong>of</strong> resources<br />
in the ‘recovering’ phase (Mullon et al., 2005; FAO, 2006; Daskalov<br />
et al., 2007). There is little evidence <strong>of</strong> rapid recovery in<br />
World fisheries and<br />
aquaculture production<br />
(million tonnes)<br />
120<br />
80<br />
40<br />
0<br />
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005<br />
Marine <strong>In</strong>land<br />
Aquaculture<br />
Fisheries<br />
Aquaculture<br />
Fisheries<br />
Figure 1. The World’s marine fisheries have stagnated or slightly<br />
declined in the last decade, <strong>of</strong>fset only by increases in aquaculture<br />
production (Source FAO, 2006).