Fisheries decline happen when too much is taken from sea too fast for the fish to replace themselves. Learn where we are, what’s being done and how YOU can help act now.
10% of the world’s fish stocks were being exploited beyond their sustainable limit, in 1970.
In 2013, the last year with available full data, it was 32%. Read more in the Economist of May 2017.
See related information on fisheries and fishing.
Did you know how much fish stocks are over exploited ?
The amount of fish caught at sea has been pretty much flat for the past three decades, but the share of the world’s fish stocks that are being plundered unsustainably has continued to increase.Do you know what the top 10 countries' fish catch is worth ?
The top 10 countries derive 70% of the value of the global fishing – $8.45 billion ! Japan leads the pack taking in the most value; Taiwan takes in most volume ~60% of the global marine catch.
The countries that dominate fishing in international waters would never agree to a ban; they prefer the often inadequate regulation offered by regional fisheries-management organisations. But even in these regimes, temporary and rolling closures have been tested. In the Antarctic permanent ones have proved successful.