Global production from capture fisheries and aquaculture and the food fish supply is currently the highest on record and remains very significant for global food security, providing more than 15 percent of total animal protein supplies (Tables 1 and 2 and Figure 1). China remains by far the largest producer, with reported fishery production of 41.6 million tonnes in 2000 (17 million tonnes from capture fisheries and 24.6 million tonnes from aquaculture), providing an estimated food supply of 25 kg per capita. However, there are increasing indications that capture fishery and aquaculture production statistics for China may be too high as suggested by several academic studies, and that this problem has become more pronounced since the early 1990s. Because of its importance and the uncertainty about its production statistics, China is usually discussed separately from the rest of the world, as in the previous edition of this document.
Outside China, the world's population has been increasing more quickly than the total food fish supply from production, resulting in a decreased global per capita fish supply from 14.6 kg in 1987 to 13.1 kg in 2000 (Figure 2). This decrease has been unevenly distributed. In some countries and regions fish consumption has decreased, while in others the supply has remained relatively static or has even increased slightly.
In 2000, reported global capture fisheries for the world excluding China returned to the level of the early 1990s, reaching about 77 to 78 million tonnes. This followed the oscillations of the 1994-1998 period, which were caused by the influence of El Niño on the catches of Peruvian anchoveta. There have been some recent relative gains from other regions, particularly Asian inland waters, the Indian Ocean and the West Central Pacific. In some areas, there have been declines from the 1998 figures, particularly in the North Pacific.
This generally stable situation for global catches masks regional disparities. In the Northwest Pacific, reported total catches have doubled from about 12 million tonnes in 1970 to 23 million tonnes in 2000. China began the 1970s with about 20 percent of this catch, but by 2000 its share had risen to more than 60 percent. The rapid rise in China's reported production, particularly the 2.5-fold increase of its catch to nearly 17 million tonnes since 1990, is in marked contrast to the almost halving of other countries' catch from this region, which dropped to less than 9 million tonnes over the same period.
Unlike capture fisheries, aquaculture production has continued to increase markedly. Excluding China, world aquaculture production (other than aquatic plants) exhibited a somewhat lower average annual growth rate (5.3 percent) in the 1990s than it did in the 1980s (7.1 percent). It is believed that aquaculture potential still exists in many areas and for many species.
Employment in the primary capture fisheries and aquaculture production sectors has remained relatively stable since 1995, and was estimated to be about 35 million people in 2000. Of this total, 65 percent were in marine capture fisheries, 15 percent in inland capture fisheries and 20 percent in aquaculture production.
International trade in fish products has again increased to a new record of US$55.2 billion, continuing the last decade's underlying 4 percent annual growth in fisheries trade. Net export trade from developing countries increased from US$10 billion in 1990 to US$18 billion in 2000, corresponding to a real (corrected for inflation) growth of 45 percent.
Global forecasts of upper limits to capture fisheries, which have been made since the early 1970s, are being increasingly substantiated by the evidence of recent years. There are continuing global concerns about the reliability of statistics (see Box 1 and Reliable statistics as an essential basis for effective fisheries management, Part 2) and that the pace and direction of fisheries research and supporting information systems are falling behind the need to understand the relationships between fisheries and the environment and between fisheries management and development. Owing to the understanding that fishing overcapacity and the global reach of fishing operations continue to have deleterious effects on fish stocks, it is becoming more widely recognized that long-term fisheries management and investment need to take into account the environment and natural long-term climatic fluctuations (see Fisheries and long-term climate variability, Part 3), including episodic events such as El Niño. Although research is under way on some of these issues, including the nature and extent of human-induced effects on the climate, there remain areas of concern that require new commitments and methodologies. For example, the frequent lack of basic data on subsistence and small-scale fisheries, such as those in many inland waters, contributes to failures in management and policy-making directed at preventing overexploitation, stock decline and exacerbations to rural food insecurity and poverty.
BOX 1 FAO's role in fishery statistics FAO is involved in: As a result, the statistics supplied to FAO by national authorities are routinely corrected when mistakes are obvious, better data are available from other sources (such as regional fishery bodies) or countries agree with FAO estimates. FAO interacts with countries to explore problems and try to resolve them, but this process is often slow. When countries do not respond to FAO enquiries, FAO estimates are automatically applied. Occasionally, when countries do not explain or support suspect statistics, those statistics are set aside and FAO estimates published instead. This action is sometimes seen as provocative, but often encourages corrective action by the country concerned. Many countries, including China, are working with FAO to try to address issues concerning the reliability of their fishery statistics. National reports are the main, but not the only, source of data used by FAO to maintain its fishery statistics database. When data are missing or considered unreliable, FAO includes estimates based on the best information that is available from any source, such as regional fishery organizations, project documents, industry magazines or statistical interpolations. Fleet statistics that are submitted by countries are cross-checked with data from other sources, such as international shipping registers. The international trade statistics obtained from countries are supplemented through a comprehensive network of regional intergovernmental institutions created by FAO (the Computerized System of Fish Marketing Information [GLOBEFISH]). In the 1990s, FAO completely revised its fishery production statistics time series by computerizing them back to 1950, including estimates where data were missing, disaggregating data by fishing areas, taking political changes into account (e.g. the emergence of new countries), adjusting species identification as taxonomy evolves, and improving the differentiation between aquaculture and capture fisheries production. The resulting data sets are used in numerous analyses, both outside and within FAO, and are widely available on the Web (as the Computer System for Global Fish Catches [FishStat]). FAO's global reviews of the state of stocks do not use catch statistics as a primary source of information because more direct indicators often exist. The primary information used is obtained directly from the working groups of FAO and non-FAO RFMOs and other formal arrangements, scientific literature (journals, theses, etc.) and industry magazines, as well as information that is independent of fisheries, such as trade data. Where RFMOs do not exist, such as in the Northwest Pacific, bilateral assessment processes (e.g. that among China, Japan and the Republic of Korea) can be used. Where data do not exist, such as on discards, estimates are made on a one-off basis by expert consultants or through dedicated expert consultations. If FAO has not yet been able to work effectively in an area (e.g. production from illegal fishing), there will be no global-level information for that area, although data will be available for certain fishing areas or certain years. FAO's catch statistics are global in coverage, have complete time series since 1950 and are regularly updated. These advantages mean that they can be used, when other data are lacking, to provide overview trends in fisheries by region, and resource status indicators. Financial support for the development and maintenance of national fishery statistics systems has decreased sharply in real terms during the last decade. At the same time there have been dramatically increased needs for information on, for example, by-catch and discards, fishing capacity, illegal fishing, vessels authorized to fish in the high seas, economic data (expenditures, revenues, prices, subsidies), employment, management systems, inventories of stocks and fisheries, and aquaculture. Despite FAO's efforts, the fishery data available are not fully reliable in terms of coverage, timeliness and quality. Data are often submitted to FAO after delays of one or two years. The proportion of catch to be identified at the individual species level has tended to decrease over time, while "unidentified fish" account for an increasing share of reported statistics as fisheries diversify and large stocks are depleted. Stock assessment working groups provide a good means of screening catch data, but stock assessment has become less frequent in many developing regions as a result of human and financial resource restrictions. The general availability of data has not improved significantly over the last two decades. Statistics from artisanal and subsistence fisheries are still a concern, and many key statistics are missing at the global level, such as economic and social data, discards and fishing capacity. As a result, although the available statistics probably do reflect general trends reliably - for example, global development trends or climatic changes (see Fisheries and long-term climate variability, Part 3, p. 87) - the annual figures and the assessments involve some uncertainty, and small changes from one year to another are probably not statistically significant. The FAO Fisheries Department believes that working with countries is the only way to improve fishery statistics, primarily in order to meet national needs with regard to food security and fisheries management, but also to meet the needs of regional fishery bodies and FAO. Without reliable statistics, effective fisheries management and policy-making are impossible, and there will be serious negative implications at the national and regional levels. Unfortunately, the rehabilitation of major national data collection schemes to provide reliable statistics is necessarily a slow process. Source: R. Grainger, FAO Fisheries Department. |
Marine fisheries governance and the prospect of improved fisheries management are gathering pace as fisheries in a growing number of ocean areas come under the purview of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), and as these are being held to greater accountability by the international community. However, progress in some regions and in many national jurisdictions has been weak. In inland waters, important fisheries in large rivers and lakes often suffer from ineffective governance. Inland regional fishery bodies, when they exist, tend to be mostly advisory and have no management powers. In most cases, inland fisheries are subject only to national jurisdictions even though the pressures of population growth will be most felt in tropical inland fisheries, where they will take the form of growing fishing effort. It seems plausible that, in the long term, fish supplies will meet demand only if real prices for fish are raised slightly. This assumes that aquaculture will continue to grow, which presupposes that the environmental concerns relating to it will be addressed.
Total capture fisheries production in 2000 reached 94.8 million tonnes (Table 1), the highest level ever. The estimated first sale value of this production amounted to some US$81 billion, a marginal increase over the value in 1998. Preliminary catch reports for 2001 from major fishing countries indicate that there may be a marked decrease in global capture production, to about 92 million tonnes. China's catches, which accounted for almost 20 percent of total world capture production in 1998, remained stable in 1999 and decreased marginally in 2000 following the adoption of a zero-growth policy (Figure 3 and Box 2). In 2000, total production from marine and inland capture fisheries for the world, excluding China (Table 2), was about 78 million tonnes, somewhat less than the peak of 83 million tonnes in 1989 but representing an increase from 70 million tonnes in 1998. Such recent changes have been heavily influenced by catches of Peruvian anchoveta, which are affected by environmental factors (i.e. El Niño).
China and Peru were the top producing countries in 2000, followed by Japan, the United States, Chile, Indonesia, the Russian Federation and India (Figure 4). Inland capture production for the world, excluding China, continues a gradually increasing trend; inland fisheries contributed 6.6 million tonnes in 2000, which was 8.3 percent of total world catches.
TABLE 1 | ||||||
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001* | |
(...................................................... million tonnes .......................................................) | ||||||
PRODUCTION |
||||||
INLAND |
||||||
Capture |
7.4 |
7.5 |
8.0 |
8.5 |
8.8 |
8.8 |
Aquaculture |
15.9 |
17.5 |
18.5 |
20.1 |
21.4 |
22.4 |
Total inland |
23.3 |
25.0 |
26.5 |
28.6 |
30.2 |
31.2 |
MARINE |
||||||
Capture |
86.1 |
86.4 |
79.3 |
84.7 |
86.0 |
82.5 |
Aquaculture |
10.8 |
11.1 |
12.0 |
13.3 |
14.2 |
15.1 |
Total marine |
96.9 |
97.5 |
91.3 |
98.0 |
100.2 |
97.6 |
Total capture |
93.5 |
93.9 |
87.3 |
93.2 |
94.8 |
91.3 |
Total aquaculture |
26.7 |
28.6 |
30.5 |
33.4 |
35.6 |
37.5 |
Total world fisheries |
120.2 |
122.5 |
117.8 |
126.6 |
130.4 |
128.8 |
UTILIZATION |
||||||
Human consumption |
88.0 |
90.8 |
92.7 |
94.4 |
96.7 |
99.4 |
Non-food uses |
32.2 |
31.7 |
25.1 |
32.2 |
33.7 |
29.4 |
Population (billions) |
5.7 |
5.8 |
5.9 |
6.0 |
6.1 |
6.1 |
Per capita food fish supply (kg) |
15.3 |
15.6 |
15.7 |
15.8 |
16.0 |
16.2 |
Excluding aquatic plants. | ||||||
TABLE 2 | ||||||
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001* | |
(...................................................... million tonnes .........................................................) | ||||||
PRODUCTION |
||||||
INLAND |
||||||
Capture |
5.7 |
5.7 |
5.8 |
6.2 |
6.6 |
6.6 |
Aquaculture |
4.9 |
5.1 |
5.2 |
5.9 |
6.3 |
6.5 |
Total inland |
10.6 |
10.8 |
11.0 |
12.1 |
12.9 |
13.1 |
MARINE |
||||||
Capture |
73.6 |
72.5 |
64.3 |
69.8 |
71.3 |
67.9 |
Aquaculture |
4.1 |
4.2 |
4.5 |
4.7 |
4.7 |
5.0 |
Total marine |
77.7 |
76.7 |
68.8 |
74.5 |
76.0 |
72.9 |
Total capture |
79.3 |
78.2 |
70.1 |
76.0 |
77.9 |
74.5 |
Total aquaculture |
9.0 |
9.3 |
9.7 |
10.6 |
11.0 |
11.5 |
Total Production |
88.3 |
87.5 |
79.8 |
86.6 |
88.9 |
86.0 |
UTILIZATION |
||||||
Human consumption |
60.4 |
61.5 |
61.3 |
61.9 |
63.0 |
65.1 |
Non-food uses |
27.9 |
26.0 |
18.5 |
24.7 |
25.9 |
20.9 |
Population (billions) |
4.5 |
4.6 |
4.7 |
4.7 |
4.8 |
4.9 |
Per capita food fish supply (kg) |
13.3 |
13.4 |
13.1 |
13.1 |
13.1 |
13.3 |
Excluding aquatic plants. | ||||||
BOX 2 China China has made remarkable advances in fisheries production in recent years. Growth in its productive capacity, as indicated by reported estimates of marine and inland capture fisheries and aquaculture, far exceeds growth in fisheries elsewhere in the world. China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of food fish, achieving an apparent food fish consumption of 31.3 million tonnes in 1999 (Figure 9). During the past three decades, estimated per capita consumption based on reported production (which may well have been overestimated for the last decade) has increased from 4.4 kg in 1972 to 25.1 kg in 1999. Notwithstanding this increase, fish continues to contribute about 20 percent of total consumption of animal proteins, largely because of the continuing increase in other meat supplies. Since 1994, China has become the dominant fishing country in the Northwest Pacific, with catches in excess of 20 million tonnes. As stated in the Overview (p. 3), there are indications that Chinese capture fishery and aquaculture production statistics have been overestimated, particularly in the last decade. Since 1998, a policy of zero growth has been declared for Chinese capture fisheries, and reported catches have reflected this (Figure 3). However, reported aquaculture production has continued to grow very rapidly (Figure 18), particularly for freshwater species. This matter was considered at a national workshop on Chinese fishery statistics, held in conjunction with FAO in April 2001. Estimation of the food fish supply is complicated by uncertainties concerning the production statistics and the quantities of fish utilized for non-food uses, such as direct feed to aquaculture, which are reckoned to be very substantial indeed. A further complicating factor is that trends in apparent fish consumption as derived from FAO's food balance sheets are not directly comparable with those from the Chinese National Statistical Bureau's household food consumption surveys. This is because the latter do not cover fish consumed outside the home (e.g. in restaurants and work canteens), which is considered to be a large and growing proportion of fish consumption. The Chinese authorities are working in collaboration with FAO to reduce many of these uncertainties. World marine capture fisheries production increases in 1999 and 2000 came mainly from fisheries in the Southeast Pacific. Landings from these fisheries grew by 77 percent in 1999 and 12 percent in 2000, following a marked decrease of 44 percent between 1997 and 1998. Tropical ocean regions have also exhibited increases since 1998, particularly in the Indian Ocean and the Western Central Pacific, although small declines have been seen in the Eastern Central Atlantic (Figures 5 and 7). The temperate regions of the Southwest, the Northwest and the Northeast Pacific showed decreasing catch trends, but catches from the Northwest and Northeast Atlantic, where stock assessments generally yielded pessimistic results, increased slightly between 1999 and 2000. Most of these increases were due to scallops in the Northwest Atlantic and low-value pelagic species, such as capelin and blue whiting, in the Northeast Atlantic. Catches of oceanic species have been steadily increasing over recent decades, indicating increasing fishing activity on the high seas (see Box 3). In 2000, the recovery of favourable climatic conditions after the recent El Niño led to anchoveta producing the largest single species catch (Figure 6). Catches of Clupeoids (i.e. herrings, sardines and anchovies) in other areas have shown declines recently, except in the Eastern Central Pacific and the Southeast Atlantic, where they benefited from the return of their upwelling regimes. Chilean jack mackerel, another major small pelagic species caught in the Southeast Pacific, slightly recovered in 2000 after general catch declines since 1995. In the same area, landings of chub mackerel increased in 1999 and then dropped again in 2000, at variance with the general picture of ecosystem recovery in that area. The negative trend of chub mackerel production in the Northwest Pacific continues, and catch has halved since 1996. In the Gadiformes group (i.e. cods, hakes, haddocks, etc.), world catches of Alaska pollock and cod are still declining, and the only major species to increase are capelin and blue whiting, a deep sea species. In 2000, catches of the valuable tuna species remained steady compared with 1998, after a peak of about 6 million tonnes in 1999. Catches of the other major fish groups in 2000 were also fairly stable with respect to 1998. There have been general increases in cephalopod and shrimp catches. Cephalopod catches fell in 1998 but then rose in 1999, reaching a new record of 3.6 million tonnes in 2000. Catches of shrimp have been steadily increasing by an average 3.5 percent per year since 1970, and this growth has shown no signs of slackening in recent years. Several of the species in Figure 6 are widely used as raw material in reduction to meal and oil, and are of low commercial value (species used as input for meal in 2000 were worth an average US$50 to $150 per tonne). In value terms, the most important species caught in 2000 included bigeye tuna (world catches were worth an estimated US$3 billion), yellowfin tuna (US$2 billion), skipjack tuna and Atlantic cod (more than US$1 billion each). Total fish capture in inland waters in 2000 was about 0.8 million tonnes more than in 1998 (Table 1). Most of the global total came from the catches of Asia and Africa (about 64 and 25 percent, respectively), which have continued to grow in recent years. Those of Europe, North America, South America and Oceania have remained relatively stable. The top ten producing countries account for 64 percent of world inland water production, although China's share decreased from 28 percent in 1998 to 25 percent in 2000 (Figure 8). The bulk of the inland water catches (Table 3) is from developing countries where, in most cases, inland fisheries provide an important source of animal proteins. In most developed countries, fishing in freshwater has become mainly a recreational activity, and commercial inland food fisheries are very limited, except in some large lakes. Many countries experience significant difficulties in collecting statistics on inland water fisheries. Among the main reasons for this are the scattered characteristics of these fisheries, their unrecorded contribution to subsistence and the lack of related fishery industries. The importance and size of these fisheries may be misrepresented in national and international statistics. In recent years, however, some countries have been revising their inland fishery statistics through new data collection systems or through the parallel surveys of projects or national institutions whose catch estimates differ greatly from those reported by national statistical offices. This uncertainty over the accuracy of data is one of the factors that make fishery assessment difficult, but FAO and other international agencies are actively working with national institutions to improve the situation. |
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BOX 3 Trends in high seas fisheries In 1976, states began to declare extended fisheries jurisdictions, such as exclusive economic zones (EEZs), in anticipation of international acceptance of this concept. Such acceptance was obtained in 1982 in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Since the mid-1970s, a large number of fishing nations have declared EEZs of 200 nautical miles, and high seas fisheries has come to mean fishing that is undertaken outside the EEZs - generally more than 200 nautical miles from the coast. It is difficult to assess the development of fishing on the high seas because reports to FAO of marine catches make no distinction between those taken within EEZs and those taken on the high seas. Analyses of the FAO catch database of 116 oceanic species items (epipelagic and deep water species that occur principally on the high seas) reveal that catches of oceanic species almost tripled from 3 million tonnes in 1976 to 8.5 million tonnes in 2000 (Figure 10). As some of these species, particularly the oceanic tunas, are also caught within EEZs, this increase may well be more rapid than that of high seas catches per se. The marked increase in catches of oceanic species is also reflected in the world trade in oceanic species. Import and export quantities in product weight rose from 0.5 million tonnes to almost 2.5 million tonnes over the 1976-2000 period (Figure 11). Faced with increasing evidence of overfishing on the high seas, efforts to manage high seas fisheries also accelerated over that period, and are continuing today with the development of new RFMOs and the revitalization of existing organizations (see International fisheries policy and governance). |
TABLE 3 | ||
Economic class |
Production |
Percentage of |
in 2000 |
world production | |
(million tonnes) |
||
China |
2.23 |
25.4 |
Other developing |
||
countries or areas |
5.93 |
67.4 |
Economies in transition |
0.41 |
4.6 |
Industrial countries |
0.23 |
2.6 |
Total |
8.80 |
|
In line with the increase in fishery production, over the last three decades employment in fisheries and aquaculture has continued to increase in many countries. In 2000, an estimated 35 million people (Figure 12) were directly engaged in fishing and fish farming as a full-time or - more frequently - part-time occupation, compared with 28 million a decade before.
The highest numbers of fishers and aquaculture workers (Table 4) are in Asia (85 percent of the world total) followed by Africa (7 percent), Europe, South America, North and Central America (about 2 percent each) and Oceania (0.2 percent). These shares closely reflect the different population shares and relative predominance of labour-intensive economies in the continents.
TABLE 4 | |||||||||||||
1970 |
1980 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 | |
(....................................................... thousands .........................................................) | |||||||||||||
Total |
|||||||||||||
Africa |
1 360 |
1 553 |
1 917 |
2 092 |
1 757 |
2 032 |
2 070 |
2 238 |
2 359 |
2 357 |
2 453 |
2 491 |
2 585 |
North and Central America |
408 |
547 |
767 |
755 |
757 |
777 |
777 |
770 |
776 |
782 |
786 |
788 |
751 |
South America |
492 |
543 |
769 |
738 |
763 |
874 |
810 |
814 |
802 |
805 |
798 |
782 |
784 |
Asia |
9 301 |
13 690 |
23 656 |
24 707 |
25 423 |
26 342 |
27 317 |
28 552 |
28 964 |
29 136 |
29 458 |
29 160 |
29 509 |
Europe |
682 |
642 |
654 |
928 |
914 |
901 |
881 |
864 |
870 |
837 |
835 |
858 |
821 |
Oceania |
42 |
62 |
74 |
77 |
79 |
80 |
74 |
76 |
77 |
78 |
82 |
82 |
86 |
World |
12 285 |
17 036 |
27 837 |
29 297 |
29 691 |
31 005 |
31 928 |
33 314 |
33 847 |
33 995 |
34 411 |
34 163 |
34 536 |
Of which fish farmers | |||||||||||||
Africa* |
... |
... |
... |
... |
... |
5 |
6 |
14 |
62 |
55 |
56 |
57 |
75 |
North and Central America |
... |
... |
53 |
73 |
101 |
206 |
206 |
176 |
182 |
185 |
191 |
190 |
190 |
South America |
... |
... |
16 |
15 |
15 |
20 |
30 |
43 |
44 |
42 |
41 |
42 |
41 |
Asia |
... |
... |
3 698 |
3 882 |
4 292 |
4 927 |
5 389 |
6 003 |
6 051 |
6 569 |
6 758 |
6 930 |
7 132 |
Europe |
... |
... |
11 |
12 |
13 |
23 |
26 |
18 |
23 |
25 |
25 |
26 |
27 |
Oceania |
... |
... |
neg. |
neg. |
neg. |
neg. |
1 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
World |
... |
... |
3 778 |
3 983 |
4 423 |
5 182 |
5 657 |
6 254 |
6 366 |
6 880 |
7 075 |
7 249 |
7 470 |
*Data for 1993-1995 are not comparable with those for the following years and were reported by only a limited number of countries. | |||||||||||||
In 2000, fishers and aquaculture workers represented 2.6 percent of the 1.3 billion people economically active in agriculture worldwide, compared with 2.3 percent in 1990. This world average is reflected in most continents, except for Africa, where the percentage of fishing and aquaculture workers is a low 1.3 percent of the total agriculture labour force, and North and Central America, where the share is 1 percent higher than the world average.
Within the total of 35 million people, the number of fishers has been growing at an average rate of 2.2 percent per annum since 1990, while aquaculture workers have increased by an annual average of about 7 percent; these apparent increases are in part a result of better reporting. Most of the growth of employment in fish farming and other culture practices has occurred in Asia, particularly in China, where the reported number of people engaging in cultivation of aquatic life has doubled in the past decade. Greater economic opportunities derive from the commercial aquaculture production sector; for instance, in 1999 the average annual income of Japanese households engaged in aquaculture was nearly twice as much as that of households engaged in coastal fishing. While the households engaged in aquaculture derived an average 64 percent of their income from aquaculture-related activities, fishing-related activities accounted for an average 38 percent of the income of fishing households.
Employment in fishing is decreasing in capital-intensive economies, notably in most European countries and in Japan. For instance, in Norway employment in the fishery sector has been declining for several years (Table 5). In 1990 about 27 500 people were employed in fishing (excluding fish farming), but this number had declined by 27 percent to 20 100 in 2000. In Japan over the last decade, the numbers of marine fishery workers peaked in 1991 and has been falling ever since to reach a low of 260 000 people in 2000. Of these, about 85 percent were employed in coastal fishery operations, while offshore and pelagic fisheries employed the remaining 15 percent. The vast majority (75 percent) of fishers were self-employed workers, confirming this special feature of the fishery professions. The self-employment rate among men was 70 percent, while among women it was considerably higher at 94 percent.
A characteristic of the fishing workforce in developed economies is the advancing of its age profile, mainly resulting from the profession's decreasing attractiveness to younger generations. For instance, in 2000 in Japan, nearly 32 percent of male marine fishers (who made up 83 percent of the total) were more than 60 years of age. This was an increase of 3 percentage points on the previous year and 18 percentage points on 1980 (14 percent). Comparatively, workers under 25 years of age represented nearly 8 percent of the nearly 398 000 total for male workers in the late 1970s and only 2.7 percent of the 216 100 male workers in 2000.
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 available. In many developing countries, the largest number of fishers, their spouses and families are occupied in coastal artisanal fisheries and associated activities. The socio-economic importance of these activities is more difficult to measure, but is undeniable, in terms not only of contribution to production and income but also of food security for the coastal communities.
TABLE 5 | ||||||
Country |
Sex |
1970 |
1980 |
1990 |
2000 | |
WORLD |
M and F |
(number) |
12 284 678 |
17 036 307 |
27 835 441 |
34 535 653 |
(index) |
44 |
61 |
100 |
124 | ||
China |
M and F |
(number) |
2 300 000 |
2 950 344 |
9 092 926 |
12 233 128 |
(index) |
25 |
32 |
100 |
135 | ||
Indonesia |
M and F |
(number) |
841 627 |
2 231 515 |
3 617 586 |
5 118 571 |
(index) |
23 |
62 |
100 |
141 | ||
Japan |
M |
(number) |
437 900 |
376 900 |
303 400 |
216 110 |
F |
(number) |
111 500 |
80 500 |
67 200 |
44 090 | |
(index) |
148 |
123 |
100 |
70 | ||
Peru* |
M and F |
(number) |
49 824 |
49 503 |
43 750 |
55 061 |
(index) |
114 |
113 |
100 |
125 | ||
Norway |
M |
(number) |
43 018 |
34 789 |
30 017 |
23 026 |
F |
(number) |
... |
... |
690 |
526 | |
(index) |
156 |
126 |
100 |
77 | ||
Iceland |
M |
(number) |
4 895 |
5 946 |
6 551 |
5 300 |
F |
(number) |
... |
... |
400 |
800 | |
(index) |
70 |
86 |
100 |
88 | ||
Index: 1990 = 100. | ||||||
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The most recent FAO estimate indicated that, in 1998, the total world fleet engaged in fishing comprised about 1.3 million decked vessels and about 2.8 million undecked vessels, 65 percent of which were not powered. The vast majority of these vessels were concentrated in Asia (84.6 percent of total decked vessels, 51 percent of powered undecked vessels and 83 percent of total non-powered boats). The remaining 15.4 percent of the world's total decked fishing vessels were accounted for by Europe (8.9 percent), North and Central America (4.5 percent), Africa (1 percent), South America (0.6 percent) and Oceania (a negligible 0.2 percent). Countries in North and Central America had 21 percent of the open fishing vessels with engines, Africa had 16 percent, South America 6 percent, and Oceania 3 percent.
Since the expansion of the world fleet, which continued until the late 1980s, the numbers of decked fishing vessels have been fairly stable. In 1990 they numbered 1.2 million, and yearly fluctuations since then have been about 1 percent; part of this variation is probably owing to statistical reporting methods. The same overall trend applies at the continental level.
Indications of trends after 1998 are not available on a global scale. However, the European Community (EC) fishing fleet decreased from 100 085 vessels in 1995 to nearly 96 000 in 2000. Of the 77 500 vessels for which the length overall is known (it is not known for 18 500 vessels, mainly Italian and Portuguese) about 80 percent measured less than 12 m, the majority of these belonging to Greece and Spain. In 2000, some 14 percent of EC fishing vessels were between 12 and 24 m in length, and fewer than 350 measured more than 45 m (a decrease of 52 units compared with four years before). In December 2000, Norway had a fleet of 8 430 decked fishing vessels and 4 585 open registered vessels. Comparative statistics for 1990 indicated an almost equal number for the decked fleet, while the number of open vessels had nearly doubled. The Icelandic fleet had 1 993 vessels on register in 2001, 55 percent of which were undecked; nearly 40 percent of the decked vessels are more than 20 years old. In Japan, fishing vessels operating in marine and inland waters numbered 361 845 in 1999, down from 371 416 in 1995 and 416 067 in 1990. The vast majority (90 percent) of the total powered vessels fishing in marine waters were of less than 5 gross tons. Between 1990 and 2000, the number of decked vessels decreased by 45 000 units (a drop of 12 percent).
BOX 4 Lloyds Maritime Information Services aims to maintain a full picture of all ships, including fishing vessels, of more than 100 gross registered tons (GRT). Vessels are continually added to the database each year; some of these are new vessels that were built that year and others are added as information becomes available. Vessels of more than 100 GRT are the most likely to operate internationally, through access agreements and on the high seas, but these represent only a small proportion of the global fishing fleet. Nevertheless, monitoring the > 100 GRT fleet gives an indication of the changing shape of large-scale industrial fishing (Figure 16). It provides indications of the patterns of change in entries to, and exits from, all shipping registers, particularly open registers. By definition, these registers offer flag state status to almost any ship and are often seen by vessel owners as a means of avoiding controls to which they might otherwise be subject. The number of vessels that are known to exist but for which the flag is unknown is also a cause for concern, although some of these vessels might have been removed from the register before being scrapped. The numbers of vessels in the major open registers with unknown flags are shown in Figure 17. The number of newly built fishing vessels added to the register has remained about 300 per year in recent years, but reductions through scrapping and loss mean that there has been a net reduction in the fleet. The major changes to fleets in the last two years are shown in Table 6. The extent of reflagging in the fishing fleet can be measured by comparing the database in sequential years and by following each vessel through its unique Lloyds or International Maritime Organization (IMO) number (Table 7). Source: A. Smith, FAO Fisheries Department. |
Following a decline to 79.2 million tonnes in 1998, total production of marine capture fisheries increased to 84.7 million tonnes in 1999 and 86.0 million tonnes in 2000, thus recovering to levels close to the historical maximum recorded for 1996 and 1997. If China is excluded (see Box 2), world production in 2000 was 71.3 million tonnes - about 5 percent less than the historical peak of 75.5 million tonnes in 1995. Most of the recent changes in total global landings from wild marine fishery resources can be explained by the decline and rapid recovery (in biomass and production volumes) that followed the 1997-1998 El Niño. The areas most seriously affected by this recent El Niño were the Southeast Pacific and, to a lesser extent, the Eastern Central Pacific (Figure 7).
The global situation of the main marine fish stocks for which assessment information is available follows the general trend observed in previous years. Overall, as fishing pressure continues to increase, the number of underexploited and moderately exploited fisheries resources continues to decline slightly, the number of fully exploited stocks remains relatively stable and the number of overexploited, depleted and recovering stocks is increasing slightly.
TABLE 6 | ||||
Country |
New building |
Scrapping and loss | ||
Register |
2000 |
2001 |
2000 |
2001 |
Argentina |
_ |
_ |
4 |
9 |
Belize |
4 |
8 |
8 |
11 |
Canada |
_ |
_ |
14 |
8 |
Denmark |
9 |
3 |
_ |
_ |
France |
5 |
15 |
9 |
9 |
Germany |
_ |
_ |
7 |
18 |
Iceland |
4 |
17 |
_ |
_ |
Ireland |
18 |
4 |
_ |
_ |
Japan |
22 |
14 |
237 |
23 |
Korea, Republic of |
_ |
_ |
16 |
11 |
Norway |
24 |
18 |
_ |
_ |
Netherlands |
10 |
8 |
_ |
_ |
Russian Federation |
_ |
_ |
40 |
51 |
Spain |
40 |
48 |
104 |
48 |
United Kingdom |
10 |
14 |
14 |
20 |
United States |
98 |
52 |
23 |
58 |
Others |
61 |
92 |
166 |
176 |
Unknown |
_ |
_ |
44 |
22 |
Blank |
_ |
_ |
43 |
69 |
Total |
305 |
293 |
729 |
533 |
Net change |
- 424 |
- 240 | ||
TABLE 7 | ||||
Flagging |
Out |
In | ||
changes |
2000 |
2001 |
2000 |
2001 |
Argentina |
_ |
_ |
4 |
9 |
Belize |
34 |
29 |
76 |
40 |
Cambodia |
_ |
_ |
7 |
5 |
Cyprus |
_ |
_ |
9 |
3 |
Canary Islands |
0 |
38 |
_ |
_ |
Equatorial Guinea |
5 |
0 |
_ |
_ |
Honduras |
89 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
Ireland |
_ |
_ |
6 |
10 |
Japan |
59 |
12 |
_ |
_ |
Korea, Republic of |
_ |
_ |
_ |
_ |
Namibia |
_ |
_ |
19 |
2 |
Netherlands |
8 |
12 |
_ |
_ |
Norway |
6 |
13 |
5 |
9 |
Panama |
29 |
12 |
18 |
14 |
Russian Federation |
21 |
17 |
59 |
56 |
Spain |
15 |
4 |
0 |
39 |
St Vincent |
9 |
11 |
17 |
3 |
Ukraine |
11 |
11 |
_ |
_ |
United Kingdom |
21 |
7 |
6 |
13 |
United States |
12 |
4 |
_ |
_ |
Vanuatu |
12 |
2 |
5 |
5 |
Others |
175 |
117 |
155 |
139 |
Unknown |
56 |
51 |
170 |
0 |
Total |
562 |
349 |
562 |
349 |
An estimated 25 percent of the major marine fish stocks or species groups for which information is available are underexploited or moderately exploited. Stocks or species groups in this category represent the main source for the potential expansion of total marine catches. About 47 percent of the main stocks or species groups are fully exploited and are therefore producing catches that have reached, or are very close to, their maximum sustainable limits. Thus, nearly half of world marine stocks offer no reasonable expectations for further expansion. Another 18 percent of stocks or species groups are reported as overexploited. Prospects for expansion or increased production from these stocks are negligible, and there is an increasing likelihood that stocks will decline further and catches will decrease, unless remedial management action is taken to reduce overfishing conditions. The remaining 10 percent of stocks have become significantly depleted, or are recovering from depletion and are far less productive than they used to be, or than they could be if management can return them to the higher abundance levels commensurate with their pre-depletion catch levels. Recovery usually implies drastic and long-lasting reductions in fishing pressure and/or the adoption of other management measures to remove conditions that contributed to the stock's overexploitation and depletion.
Total catches from the Northwest and the Southeast Atlantic have levelled off and remained relatively stable over the last five to ten years, at about half the level of the maximums reached three decades ago. Of particular concern is the failure of the stocks of haddock, redfish and cod to respond to the drastic management measures that have been adopted in the Northwest Atlantic. Most of the changes in the Southeast Atlantic are caused by fluctuations in abundance, and hence catches, of the important small pelagics, in particular Cape horse mackerel, Southern African anchovy and Southern African pilchard. After being severely depleted, the stocks of Southern African anchovy and Southern African pilchard show some signs of recovery, although current management efforts have not been in place sufficiently long to bring catches back to maximum historical levels.
In the Eastern Central Atlantic and the Northwest Pacific, total catches are levelling off at relatively high levels, having recovered from a short decline following their maximum production levels some 10 to 15 years ago. Most of these changes result from recoveries in abundance, hence landings, of small pelagics. In the Northeast Atlantic, the Western Central Atlantic, the Northeast Pacific, the Mediterranean and Black Sea, the Eastern Central Pacific and the Southwest Pacific, annual catches are relatively stable, or show a slight declining trend after reaching their maximum potentials one or two decades ago. In the Southwest Atlantic, total annual catches are declining after reaching an all-time high in 1997. This area is being affected by the depletion, and consequent decline in catches, of one of its most important stocks, the Argentine hake.
In the Southeast Pacific, total annual catches reached an all-time high in 1994, and then declined sharply as a consequence of the severe 1997-1998 El Niño and the depletion of the Peruvian anchoveta and other important stocks in the area. Post-El Niño recovery has been surprisingly fast, particularly in the stocks of Peruvian anchoveta. This has taken the total catches rapidly back to pre-El Niño levels, although some other important and declining stocks such as Chilean jack mackerel and the South American pilchard have given no signs of recovery.
The increasing trend of total catch in the Western Indian Ocean slowed down, having reached a maximum in 1999. Two ocean areas in which total catches are thought to be expanding - and where, at least in theory, there is a higher potential to increase total catches - are the Eastern Indian Ocean and the Western Central Pacific. These areas, together with the Western Indian Ocean, have the lowest incidence of fully exploited, overexploited, depleted or recovering fish stocks and have some underexploited or moderately exploited stocks. However, they also have the highest incidence of stocks whose state of exploitation is unknown or uncertain and for which overall production estimates are, consequently, less reliable.
Except for skipjack tuna in some areas, most tuna stocks are fully exploited in all oceans, and some are overfished or even depleted. Overcapacity of the tuna fleets has been pointed out as a major problem in several areas. Of particular concern are the stocks of Northern and Southern bluefin tunas in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. These are reported to be overfished and, in most cases, severely depleted.
Another source of concern is the rapid increase in fishing pressure on some of the deep water resources (see Box 3) that are being exploited in seamounts and other deep water areas at high latitudes in the Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic and the South Pacific, particularly orange roughy, alfonsinos and dories. Most of these stocks are slow-growing, long-living animals, and thus are highly vulnerable to depletion when the distribution, abundance and dynamics of their stocks are largely unknown. There is severe risk that, in the absence of effective fishery management regimes, these stocks could easily be depleted long before much is known about their populations. Concern has also been expressed regarding the severe decline of Patagonian toothfish stocks in the southern oceans, which are mostly exploited by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
In The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2000, it was reported that inland fishery resources are undervalued and under threat from habitat alteration (see Box 2 of SOFIA 2000), degradation and unsustainable fishing activities. Recent field studies in Southeast Asia1 have revealed that there are significant problems concerning the accuracy of inland fishery statistics in the region. These problems stem from a lack of adequate resources to collect fishery statistics, the difficulty in obtaining information from the sector, misreporting and a lack of capacity to use information to improve the management of inland fishery resources. Experiences indicate that the situation is probably similar in other parts of the world.
Accurate information is crucial to understanding the importance of inland fishery resources and to managing those resources for the benefit of rural populations. Incomplete or incorrect information is a liability in efforts to provide food security to developing regions. As efforts to improve information on inland fishery resources continue, it is inappropriate at this time to present additional data in The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2002.
BOX 5 Dams, fish and fisheries: a challenge for fishery managers and engineers Dams for irrigation, flood control, hydropower production and water diversion contribute to development and welfare. The structures and purposes of dams range from high dams for power generation and water supply in steep mountain valleys to irrigation, water diversion or navigation structures in lower areas. Dams are also used for flood control, but this has often not been very successful. Many dams are multifunctional and fulfil several purposes with a single facility. Dam and weir construction has a long tradition in many parts of the world. Over the last half-century, thousands of large dams have been constructed worldwide. The number of smaller dams, weirs and other in-stream obstacles across rivers is not known on a global scale, but may be in the order of several hundred thousands. Barriers across rivers often have negative impacts on the natural fish populations and may contribute, along with other factors, to the diminished abundance, disappearance or even extinction of species. An example of this is the extinction of the salmon (Salmo salar) in the River Rhine, a stock that had supported a thriving salmon fishery in the first half of the twentieth century. Dams are threatening many aquatic species in Europe and North America, as well as in other continents where far less is known about the biology, behaviour, fishery and population dynamics of the fish species concerned. In several countries, including India, Nepal and South Africa, research on fish behaviour is being carried out so that fish passes can be adapted to the needs of indigenous species. Depending on the swimming capacities of the fish concerned, even low obstacles (i.e. those of between 20 cm and a few metres in height), such as low weirs or cross-river sills (structures to stabilize the river bottom), can have devastating effects. Examples of affected fish from European rivers include the bullhead (Cottus gobio), the nase (Chondrostoma nasus) and the barbel (Barbus barbus). As well as fish, other aquatic animals - or their aquatic life stages (e.g. among the macrozoobenthos) - can be affected by changes to free longitudinal movements in the river. Cross-river structures impair animals' movement in two main ways: they constitute barriers to the upstream and downstream migration of species that depend on longitudinal movements in the river at some stage of their life cycle; and they cause physical modifications. The latter include: changes in slope, river bed profile, bottom surface structure and bottom substrate; submersion of gravel zones or riffle sections; destruction of riparian vegetation; and changes in the thermal or trophic regime. The downstream flow regime is often drastically changed. Dams may interrupt longitudinal passage completely, or at least delay migration. Downstream passage through hydraulic turbines or over high spillways can increase mortality, and there may be increased predation on migrating young fish as they pass through a dam's reservoir. The cumulative effect of several obstacles on the same river may have important negative implications for fisheries, especially in tropical regions where river fisheries often contribute substantially to rural livelihoods. In large rivers, yield models relating river basin area and main channel length to catches suggest that yields increase exponentially as the river length increases. This is owing to the connectivity and cumulative influences of upstream processes within the system (the "river continuum concept"), as well as to lateral processes associated with the riparian, watershed and floodplain dimensions of the stream ecosystem (the "flood pulse concept"). For example, such a yield model may estimate that a 25-km section of river would yield catches of 9 113 kg/year at a distance of 50 km from the river's source. At 250 km from the source, a 25-km section of the same river would yield 37 197 kg/year. If a dam were constructed 400 km from the river's source, and resulted in a loss of 25 km of the river at that point, the reservoir would need to compensate for 57 925 kg/year of catch. Dams break up a river's longitudinal and lateral continuity and can significantly block nutrient flow throughout the ecosystem, thereby affecting fisheries production in downstream reservoirs and river channels, as well as in estuary and marine environments. The larger the river and the more downstream the location of the dam, the less likely it is that a reservoir fishery will be able to compensate for fish yield losses sustained by the river fishery. Because of the production dynamics, compensation potentials appear higher in shallower reservoirs and in tropical regions than they are in deeper reservoirs and in more northern latitudes. Estimates show yield potentials of up to 143 kg/ha/year for natural African river and floodplain fisheries, although it can be difficult to compensate for loss in yield from river fisheries. Productive reservoir fisheries have been developed with yields of up to 329 kg/ha/year in small reservoirs in Africa, up to 125 kg/ha/year in Latin America and the Caribbean and up to 650 kg/ha/year in Asia. Thriving reservoir fisheries can develop in areas where river fisheries contribute little to overall national fishery yields, or in drier regions where dams are constructed for irrigation and fisheries are secondary considerations. The benefits from smaller, shallower reservoirs seem to be more pronounced. Stocking of exotic species, in both reservoirs and the tailwaters of dams, can enhance yields, as long as the exotic fishes are environmentally sound and culturally acceptable to the surrounding human population; some areas have no tradition of fishing and fish consumption. Obstructed passage can be mitigated to some extent by fish passes (sometimes called "fauna passes") for upstream migration and bypasses for downstream passage, but lost habitat cannot easily be compensated for. For anadromous and potamodromous species, upstream passage past obstacles can use several types of passage, including pool-type fish passes, Denil fish passes, bypass channels that imitate nature and fish lifts or locks. Such species can also be collected and transported, if the facilities for doing so are available. Over the last two decades, especially in Australia, France, Japan and New Zealand, significant progress has been made to develop region-specific technologies to improve fish passage facilities, first for upstream and now also for downstream passage. In 2000, a vertical slot fish pass was constructed at the Iffezheim dam on the River Rhine to allow, inter alia, salmon to migrate upstream. Some countries such as France have amended the relevant laws to make the restoration of free passage at obstacles obligatory, at least on rivers that are classified as important for fish migration. More and more frequently the owner of the dams and weirs has to pay to restore free passage. Effective and efficient fish passage facilities require knowledge of the biology and behaviour of the species concerned. Thus, if basic biological information is missing, it is difficult to transpose fish passage technology to dam projects in other continents or river systems, or from temperate to tropical conditions. However, limited knowledge of the relevant biology does not justify failure to address the problem. The precautionary approach should always be applied, as recently discussed at a Fish Passage Workshop in South Africa. The design of fish passes requires a multidisciplinary approach involving engineers, biologists and managers. Designs should be systematically evaluated, if possible through an obligatory and comprehensive long-term monitoring programme. Effective environmental assessment and management, coupled with improvements in the design of civil engineering structures, have made some recent dam projects somewhat more fish-friendly and environmentally acceptable. Source: G. Marmulla, FAO Inland Water Resources and Aquaculture Service. Based on FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 419. |
According to FAO statistics, aquaculture's contribution to global supplies of fish, crustaceans and molluscs continues to grow, increasing from 3.9 percent of total production by weight in 1970 to 27.3 percent in 2000. Aquaculture is growing more rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors. Worldwide, the sector has increased at an average compounded rate of 9.2 percent per year since 1970, compared with only 1.4 percent for capture fisheries and 2.8 percent for terrestrial farmed meat production systems. The growth of inland water aquaculture production has been particularly strong in China, where it averaged 11.5 percent per year between 1970 and 2000 compared with 7.0 percent per year in the rest of the world over the same period. Mariculture production in China increased at an average annual rate of 14 percent, compared with 5.4 percent in the rest of the world. However, there is a possibility that China's aquaculture production, particularly its growth since the early 1990s, has been overestimated in the statistics (see Box 2). Figure 18 shows trends in inland and marine aquaculture production for China and the rest of the world.
In 2000, reported total aquaculture production (including aquatic plants) was 45.7 million tonnes by weight and US$56.5 billion by value. China was reported to have produced 71 percent of the total volume and 49.8 percent of the total value of aquaculture production. More than half of the total world aquaculture production in 2000 was finfish, and the growth of the major species groups continues to be rapid with no apparent slowdown in production to date (Figure 19). World aquatic plant production was 10.1 million tonnes (US$5.6 billion), of which 7.9 million tonnes (US$4.0 billion) originated in China.
In contrast to terrestrial farming systems, where the bulk of global production is based on a limited number of animal and plant species, more than 210 different farmed aquatic animal and plant species were reported in 2000. This great diversity reflects the large number of aquatic species that are readily adaptable to the wide range of production systems and conditions present in the different countries and regions of the world. It should also be noted that the number of species farmed is probably considerably higher than reported, as more than 9.7 million tonnes (21.2 percent) of global aquaculture production was not reported at the species level in 2000. This "unspecified" group is likely to include species that have not yet been recorded individually as being cultured.
In 2000, more than half of global aquaculture production originated from marine or brackish coastal waters. The mean annual growth rate (for the period 1970-2000) was, however, highest for freshwater aquaculture production. Although brackish water production represented only 4.6 percent of total global aquaculture production by weight in 2000, it comprised 15.7 percent of total production by value. The main species groups reared in freshwater were finfish. High-value crustaceans and finfish predominate in brackish water, and molluscs and aquatic plants in marine waters (Figure 20). Production in terms of quantity and value for major producing countries and major species groups is shown in Figures 21 and 22.
It is particularly significant that aquaculture production in developing countries and low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs) has been growing steadily at an average rate of about 10 percent per year since 1970. However, production growth (by both quantity and value) among LIFDCs, excluding China, has been slower than among non-LIFDCs (Figure 23). By contrast, aquaculture production within developed countries has been growing at an average rate of only 3.7 percent per year since 1970, and even showed a decrease of 2.4 percent from 1999 to 2000. With the exception of marine shrimp, in 2000, the bulk of aquaculture production in developing countries comprised omnivorous/herbivorous fish or filter-feeding species. In contrast, 73.7 percent of finfish culture production in developed countries was of carnivorous species.
In terms of food fish supply (i.e. aquatic finfish and shellfish products for human consumption, on a whole, live weight basis - excluding aquatic plants), the world aquaculture sector outside China produced about 11 million tonnes of farmed aquatic products in 2000, compared with about 52 million tonnes from capture fisheries. China's reported figures were about 20 million tonnes from aquaculture and 7 million tonnes from capture fisheries, a stark indication of the dominance of aquaculture in China. Outside China, per capita food fish supply from aquaculture has increased fourfold, from 0.6 kg in 1970 to 2.3 kg in 2000.
During the past three decades, aquaculture has expanded, diversified, intensified and made technological advances. The potential of this development to enhance local food security, alleviate poverty and improve rural livelihoods has been well recognized. The Bangkok Declaration and Strategy (Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific [NACA] and FAO, 2000) emphasizes the need for the aquaculture sector to continue development towards its full potential, making a net contribution to global food availability, domestic food security, economic growth, trade and improved living standards.