FOOD: FAO Urges Improved Use of Marine Resources

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Jorge Pina

ROME, May 19 1998 (IPS) - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) urged improved exploitation of marine resources in order to meet future demand for seafood, in a new report released Tuesday at the agency’s Rome headquarters.

The gap between demand and supply of seafood for human consumption could be as large as 40 million tonnes by the year 2010, by which time demand should have risen from the 1996 level of 90 million tonnes to 110 or 120 million tonnes.

The study was released on the occasion of the inauguration of Expo 98 in Lisbon, whose key theme is “Oceans, a Legacy for the Future.”

The director of FAO’s Department of Fishing Resources, Serge Garcia, said government fishing administrations had failed to protect marine resources from excessive exploitation. He added that seafood companies were inefficient from an economic standpoint.

The FAO report blames that situation on a lack of political will with respect to the need for tough adjustments, especially related to fishing rights and access to fishing resources.

The agency also criticises continued direct and indirect subsidies, a lack of control over fleets by the states where they are registered, resistance to change by the industry’s lobby groups, and a lack of participation, especially by traditional fishing communities.

The study says the average supply of seafood per person nearly doubled from eight kgs in 1950 to 15 in 1996.

Total sales of seafood worldwide were calculated at around 83 billion dollars in 1995, plus 42 billion dollars in sales of products obtained by fish and shrimp farming. Seafood exports amounted to 52 billion dollars in 1995.

The total number of fisherfolk and people working in fish and shrimp farming rose more than twofold in the past 25 years, from 13 million in 1970 to 30 million in 1995. A full 90 percent lived in Asia.

An estimated 200 million people throughout the world depend on fishing for their livelihood.

From 60 to 70 percent of fishing reserves should be safeguarded to prevent a decline in seafood resources, says FAO, which warns that both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans have been almost completely exploited.

The agency adds that if marine resources were managed better, 93 million tonnes a year could be fished, 10 million tonnes more than the current total.

A drastic reduction of at least 30 percent of the total catch would be needed to replenish the resources subject to excessive fishing, the report concludes.