World Fisheries Day - November 21

Fisheries and Aquaculture

In 1995, FAO member countries adopted the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which sets out principles and methods applicable to all aspects of fisheries and aquaculture. The code outlines ways to achieve the sustainable development and management of fisheries and aquaculture.

FAO has developed four international plans of action dealing with seabirds, sharks, fishing capacity and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing to support the code. Two special strategies have been designed to improve data collection and monitoring systems for both capture fisheries and aquaculture. A series of technical guidelines, intended to help translate the code’s principles into action, further promote the code’s implementation.


Fish for food, livelihood and trade 


As vast as the world’s oceans may seem, their resources are limited and their ecosystems fragile. FAO believes that they can be protected and conserved with careful and responsible stewardship. The Organization is committed to helping countries manage fisheries and aquaculture more effectively and to ensuring that fish continue to be a significant source of food, livelihood and trade for future generations.


KEY FACTS

•  Some 80 percent of the world’s fish production is used for human consumption. The rest is mostly processed into fishmeal and fish oil.

•  The number of people who are directly engaged in the primary production of fish either in capture from the wild or in aquaculture reached 44.9 million in 2008. In the last three decades the number of fishers and fish farmers has grown faster than the world’s population and employment in traditional agriculture.

• Fish and fish products reached a record US$102 billion dollars in exports in 2008, with further growth
  expected. In developing countries, fishery net-exports (exports minus imports) are higher than those for
  other agricultural commodities including coffee, tea, rice and bananas.

•  Some 53 percent of the world’s marine fishery resources are fully fished, or fished to the maximum
  sustainable level. Another 32 percent is overfished, depleted, or recovering from depletion.

•  Fish contributes to food security in many regions of the world.Numerous developing countries rely on fish as a major source of protein; in 28 of them, fish accounts for over 40 percent of animal protein intake.
   
•  Since 1970, fish production from aquaculture has increased at an average annual rate of 6.6 percent.
  With production reaching 52.5 million tonnes in 2008, aquaculture will soon overtake capture fisheries as a source of food fish.

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World Fisheries Day - November 21