FAO Releases 2014 SOFIA

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (NAO) has released its State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report for 2014. The report, which is published every two years, provides policy makers, civil society, and those whose livelihoods depend upon the world’s fisheries information about capture fisheries and aquaculture.

The 243-page biennial 2014 SOFIA–which you can download in its entirety here–describes a situation in which global fish consumption is rising. According to the FAO, this increase has contributed directly to unregulated fishing. The report shows that per capita fish consumption is now at its highest in history, with humans consuming on average 43.22 pounds of fish per person in 2012. That’s more than a 515% increase since the 1960s.

As one might expect, the FOA stresses the global importance of fish as a protein source, particularly in densely populated countries.

The SOFIA report shows that while fish consumption continues to grow worldwide, fishing in the world’s open seas appears to be leveling off. There are areas, the report notes, where the catch rates are too high, parts of the Pacific, in particular. Likewise, yields in the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean are dropping.

The report identifies that commercial harvesting from rivers and lakes is increasing, but only to the extent that less than 13% of the global fishing industry can be attributed to fresh water fisheries.

Also as expected, the FAO addresses in detail the situation of tuna fishing. According to the report, in 2012, tuna harvests measured 7 million metric tons, or about 15,432 million tons. Some species of tuna, such as the southern bluefin, have reached extreme danger levels of near extinction due to overfishing.

Likewise, the report identifies increased shrimp harvesting as shrimp consumption has also now reached an all-time high.

The report addresses the increasing aquaculture industry, identifying that the industry is worth $144.4 billion annually.

China has expanded its fish harvesting industry and its aquaculture industry. Chin farmed 95,900 million tons of fish and 29,762 million tons of aquatic algae in 2012. The FAO predicts this trend to continue as China’s domestic fish consumption increases and its increased harvest and production influence the rest of the world’s consumption rates.

Of course, FAO identifies overfishing worldwide as a primary problem. Fish harvesting exceeds the rate at which populations can replenish through natural reproduction. Waters around Thailand and China are greatly depleted and the FAO reports that control over net size and fishing techniques used by Chinese fishers is all but non existent.

The FAO also dedicates a section of the report to “Continuing Challenges for the Conservation and Management of Sharks.” The public and policy-makers world wide have been more aware of shark depletion over the last two decades. Shark harvesting peaked in 2000, and shark fishing rates are now in decline. The FAO attributes the decline to two primary factors: increase in conservation efforts and a global reduction of shark populations to the point of fewer sharks to harvest.

Ultimately, the report concludes that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing–commonly referred to as “IUU fishing”–is threatening fisheries, ecosystems, and economies worldwide.

Again, the full report can be found here and downloaded as a pdf here.