- CHAPTER 3 - HARVEST- AND POPULATION DATA - GLOBAL
- TABLE OF CONTENTS:
[A]
NOTE: The notation (su6) means that the data is used in the document analyzing the sustainability of the productivity of the world's food, fiber and water supply systems. (See elsewhere in this website.)
[A] - Harvest- and Population Data - General -
Small pelagics (open ocean fish) are caught in enormous quantities (38 million tonnes in 2000 - 44% of global marine landings) (
05P1).See Chapter 11 Section (11-G) (Databases) "World Resources 2005" for a compilation of Inland/ Marine Fisheries Production (Capture) (Aquaculture) (in 1000 tonnes).
Since the mid-1990s, total global wild fisheries catch has plateaued at roughly 185-200 billion pounds (85-90 million tonnes) (
00F2).From 1950-70, global marine catches grew 6%/ year (Ref. 19 of (98M7)).
Global marine fish and shellfish production: 17 million tonnes in 1950; 105 million tonnes in 1997 (99F4).
The rapid growth, particularly in the last 20 years, has come partly from growth in aquaculture that now accounts for more than 20% of the total harvest (marine + inland) ((99F5), p.10)
World fish harvest: 21 million tons (1950); 120 million tons in 1997 (98H1). Comments: This probably includes aquaculture and freshwater fisheries.
A 1995 report from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) notes: "The use of fish as a source of food rose from 40 million tons in 1970 to 72 million tons in 1993. Population is by far the most important factor in this burgeoning demand, accounting for roughly two thirds of change in total demand. At current rates of world population growth, the total world supply of food fish (marine + freshwater + aquaculture) would have to grow from 72 million tons in 1993 to 91 million tons by 2010 to maintain 1995's per-capita fish supplies..." (http://www.aaas.org/international/ehn/fisheries/speer.htm)
Over-reporting by China has masked dramatic declines in global marine fish catches for more than a decade. The amount of seafood landed has actually been decreasing during the 1990s by nearly 800 million pounds/ year, rather than increasing by 700 million pounds/ year. The over-reporting has thrown off the global fisheries statistics that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO) compiles for use by all nations. (The FAO relies on voluntary reporting of catches from countries to estimate the amount of fish the oceans hold (
01H1).) Using FAO statistics gathered since 1950, scientists created maps of world fisheries catches and built a computer model to predict catch size in different ocean regions. The model showed China's reported catches were unrealistically high when compared with catches from other ocean areas that have similar characteristics such as depth, temperature and biological productivity (01H1). Contrary to UNFAO statistics, which indicate that the global fisheries catch is stable, leading fisheries scientists reveal that catches have actually been declining for over a decade. This new evidence means that the true state of the oceans is far worse than anyone has previously realized. This is because of vast over-reporting by the People's Republic of China. Presently only a single institution, FAO, maintains global fisheries statistics. As a UN organization, FAO receives, but is not able to verify, statistics reported by member countries, even when they are suspected of being wrong (01U3). (continued below)Over-reporting by China (Cont.) Using FAO's catch data and a massive statistical analysis that compared the predicted fisheries against those reported, the authors showed errors in the official fishery statistics. These inflated statistics had led to complacency about the need to more effectively manage fisheries and have resulted in unwise investment decisions by banks and industry. Over the past 30 years there have been dramatic increases in the exploitation of world fisheries including more species being marketed and new fishing areas opening up. Increased effort and fishing pressures are devouring the accumulated "old growth" riches of the sea. Despite scientists' widespread expectations that world fisheries would plateau at values of around 80 million tons, global catches reported by FAO generally increased through the 1990's - driven largely by inflated catch reports from China (
01U3). (continued below)Over-reporting by China: Many countries over and under-report their catch statistics, but none has as big an impact as China. Although Chinese waters covers only 1% of the world's water surface, China accounts for 40% of the deviation between reported and corrected. The study highlights anomalies in the 1990's of as much as 10 tonnes/ km2 when compared to reported amounts for Chinese waters. The same state entities devoted to monitoring the economy are also tasked with increasing its output. Studies showed that whatever leaders set as production targets is what is officially reported. If leaders dictate fisheries to increase by 5% then it is reported to increase by 5%." (
01U3).Capture fisheries production: 94.8 in 2000; 92 million tonnes in 2001 (FAO data) (
03W1). Comments: False reporting by China may affect these numbers.Capture fisheries landings (excluding discarded bycatch) amounts to 96 million tonnes/ year, of which 65 million tonnes/ year of whole fish and 1 million tonnes/ year of seaweed are consumed by humans. The remaining 30-million tonnes/ year of fish catch plus another 2-million tonnes/ year of processing scraps from aquaculture and fisheries are used for fishmeal production (Ref. 22 of Ref. (
00N1)). (Presumably this data pertains to 1999) Comments: Does this include freshwater?Capture fisheries landings, as a whole, have plateaued at 85-95 million tonnes/ year (Ref. 8 of Ref. (
00N1)). Comments: Does this include freshwater?During the 1990s, global production of marine capture fisheries fluctuated between 80-85 million tonnes/ year (
03W2).Fish from the Pacific Ocean dominated world capture fisheries, accounting for almost two-thirds of total world supplies in 1999 (
03W2).World supply (harvest) of fish, crustaceans and mollusks: 112.9 million tons (102.6 million tonnes) in 1995 (UNFAO data) (75% from marine capture fisheries, 6.5% from freshwater capture-fisheries, 18.5% from aquaculture (fish-farming) (Ref. 13 of (98W1)).
As much as 95% of the world's marine fish harvest is caught, or reared in, coastal waters (93S1).
The Myers/ Worm Study: Every single species of large wild fish has been caught so systematically over the past 50 years that 90% of each type have disappeared, according to the first scientific study to assess the fish left in the global ocean. And, from the tropics to the poles, those left in the sea are only one half to one fifth the size they were before industrialized fishing began in about 1950 (
03M1). The study by marine biologists Ransom Myers of Dalhousie University in Halifax and Boris Worm of the Institute for Marine Science in Kiel, Germany, catalogues biological destruction that is unprecedented in its global scope and rapidity since the dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago (03M1). The Nature study on fish took 10 years and examined all major fisheries in the world in nine oceanic systems and on four continental shelves (03M1). (Continued in next paragraph)A separate scientific study published 5/14/03 by the Species Survival Commission of the Swiss-based World Conservation Union warned that other ocean creatures are faring no better than the big fish. The phenomenon is driven by advances in the sonar methods developed during WWII and satellite methods of finding the ocean's warm fronts where fish once congregated (
03M1).The global fish catch has grown six-fold since 1950 to 122 million tonnes in 1997. 75% of the global catch is consumed directly. 25% is reduced to fishmeal and oil for use as livestock feed and as fish feed in aquaculture (99F4).
In the post-WWII period, the marine catch was growing about 6%/ year - 3 times the rate of population growth. Aggregate growth in the 1970s and 1980s was 2%/ year (98W1). The greatest growth came from high-volume-low-priced species such as the Japanese- and the South American pilchard (low trophic-level species), which increased by over 4 million tons (per year??) each. Then, as these stocks started reaching their limits in the late 1980s, total marine catch began to fluctuate with the highly variable output of these and other high-volume, low-value fisheries (Ref. 14 of (98W1)). The global supply of fish would have stagnated with the marine catch if not for aquaculture production accelerating during the 1970s and 1980s (98W1).
Fish and Aquaculture in Asian Nutrition (88B2)
(1987 Population data (Col. 2) in millions of people)
*(** Production data is in million tonnes/ year)
Global Marine Fish Catch (millions of tons/ year) vs. Time (1900-92)
(plotted on p. 33 of Ref. (93W1)) (based on data of FAO and Hilborn).
The catch of all marine animals, and the catch of marine fish only, are plotted vs. time (1940-75) in Ref. (81C1).
World Catch of Various Categories of Water-Animals
(Catch data in millions of tonnes/ year (81C1)
World's Fish Catch/ Capita vs. Time (1950-80)
Fish Catches during 1950-83 (85B1) (81B1)
(Population Data (Col. 2) is in billions of people.)
(Catches in millions of tonnes/ year) (Col. 4, 6, and 7 are from Ref. (81B1)) (94P3)
Source: UN FAO Yearbook of Fishery Statistics, Rome
Recent Global Fish-Catch data (FAO data, (97B1))
The world's catch of ocean fish peaked in 1989 and has been declining ever since (Wm. J. Broad, New York Times, 12/26/95).
Fish Catches (1985-87) (Table 23.2 of Ref. (90B2))
(Catch data are in 1000 tonnes/ year.) (Ref. (90B2) has a nation-by-nation breakdown of these figures, plus aquaculture production data.)
Global Marine catch in 1900: 3 million tons (94W2).
Global freshwater catch in 1991: 6.4 million tons (Ref. 20 of (94W2)). (also in 3[D])
Global fish-catch growth: +4%/year (1950-88); -0.8%/ year (1988-92) (93B1).
The World fish catch (1950-93) is plotted vs. time in Fig. 1 of (94W2). (Plotted are: world total, marine catch, all aquaculture, freshwater).
Catch and Sustainable Yields of Regional Marine Fisheries (90B2)
(Catch and sustainable yield data are in units of 1000 tonnes/ year.) (Ref. (90B2) has a breakdown of these UNFAO data by fish species.)
Regional Fishery | Catch ~ | ~Catch~ |Sustainable
- - - - - - - - -|(1975-77)|(1985-87)|Yield.
Atlantic, N.W. ~ | ~3372 ~ | ~2930 ~ | 3400 4300
Atlantic, W.Cent.| ~1510 ~ | ~2168 ~ | 3200 5100
Atlantic, S.W. ~ | ~ 893 ~ | ~1847 ~ | 2600 3900
Atlantic, N.E. ~ | 12585 ~ | 10690 ~ |10100-12300
Atlantic, E.Cent.| ~3613 ~ | ~3047 ~ | 2900 3700
Atlantic, S.E. ~ | ~2656 ~ | ~2303 ~ | 2500 3100
Indian, W. ~ ~ ~ | ~2051 ~ | ~2605 ~ | 2700 4200
Indian, E. ~ ~ ~ | ~1190 ~ | ~2277 ~ | 1500 2200
Pacific, N.W.~ ~ | 17668 ~ | 25187 ~ |13500-16500
Pacific, N.E.~ ~ | ~2142 ~ | ~3156 ~ | 2600 3200
Pacific, W. Cent.| ~5447 ~ | ~6369 ~ | 5800 7800
Pacific, E. Cent.| ~1506 ~ | ~2623 ~ | 2200 3000
Pacific, S.W.~ ~ | ~ 387 ~ | ~ 745 ~ | 1200 2000
Pacific, S.E.~ ~ | ~4698 ~ | 10628 ~ | 3700-10300
Mediterranean/
- - -Black Sea ~ | ~1225 ~ | ~1966 ~ | 1090 1410
Antarctic~ ~ ~ ~ | ~ 172 ~ | ~ 416 ~ | ???? ????
World~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | 60948 ~ | 78955 ~ |62250-95950
The total fish catch in 4 regions (Pacific east-central, Atlantic northwest, west-central and southeast) declined by over 30% between 1973-91 (Pittsburgh Post Gazette, 7/24/94).
Marine Fisheries Catch by Area in 1975 (81C1) (millions of tonnes/ year)
Catch by Continent and Leading Countries, 1975
(81C1)The fish catch from all sources, including aquaculture, totaled 97 million tons in 1970 - about 5% of the protein humans consume. The peak occurred in 1989 (100 million tons) (94P2). World marine catch: 82 million tons in 1989; 77 million tons in 1991 (94P2).
Subsistence fishermen net 24 million tons of fish/ year. This is not counted in the global commercial fish catch of about 100 million tons/ year (89L1).
The most reliable source for sustainable increased production from oceans would come from improved management (FAO statement). Gains of 10-15 million tons/ year via this means seem possible - by rebuilding stocks, reducing wasteful practices, and protecting the marine environment (Ref. 28 of (98W1)). Comments: The trend, however, has been to deplete stocks, increase wasteful practices, and degrade marine environments.
Change in Catch for Major Marine Fishing Regions (Peak to 1992) (Table 1 of Ref. (94W2)) (Catches are in millions of tons/ year)
Fishery Declines of more than 100,000 tons from peak year to 1992
(Catches in millions of tons/ year) (Table 2 of (94W2) - FAO data)
[B] - Harvest- and Population Data
- By-Catch -CCAMLR estimates pirate long-lining vessels have killed, as by-catch, up to 144,000 albatrosses and 400,000 petrels in Antarctic waters since 1996 (03O1).
"By-Catch" (unwanted species caught incidentally and dumped at sea (usually dead)) now amounts to a third of world fish production (EDF Letter, 26(5) (1995)). 27 million tons of fish are discarded yearly because they are too small, the wrong species, damaged in capture, or exceed the quota (UN estimate). This amounts to about a third of the weight of all reported commercial marine landings globally. Some estimate that "by-catch" could be as high as 40 million tons/ year (95R1). Comments: "By-Catch" data excludes birds, turtles and other non-fish marine life.
The FAO estimates that fish discards by fishermen total 27 million tons/ year - not including marine mammals, sea-birds and turtles. Global by-catch, the sum of discards and unintentionally caught species that are retained is estimated at 28.7 million tons/ year (Ref. 20 of (98M1)).
Worldwide, for every kg. of shrimp caught, at least 5 kg. of other species are discarded; in some regions the ratio is 15:1 (Ref. 23 of (98M1)).
Worldwide, shrimp fishers are estimated to discard up to 15 million tons/ year of unwanted fish. Other fishers discard another 5 million tons/ year (94P1). 15-20 million tons of "by-catch" (unwanted species) in 1993 was not reported, and was thrown back into the ocean, often dead or dying (Ref. 39 of (94W2)).
Bycatch accounts for roughly 25% of the global marine fish catch - 20 million tonnes/ year ((99F5), p. 51).
[C] - Harvest- and Population Data - Low Trophic Level Species -
During the 1980s, 5 low-value (low trophic level) open-sea species (Peruvian anchovy, South American pilchard, Japanese pilchard, Chilean jack mackerel and Alaskan Pollock) accounted for 73% of the increase in world landings (on a tonnage basis?) (Ref. 56 of (99M1)).
Molluscs, foremost among them oysters, account for one-third of world production of fish and shellfish (03W2).
During the 1990s, 28-33 million tonnes of fish were used each year for the global production of fishmeal and oil. Almost all of this was landed by marine capture fisheries. When the capture of pelagic fish off the west coast of South America contracted as a result of the El Niņo phenomenon, so did global production of fishmeal: in 1998 23.9 million tonnes of fish were reduced to fishmeal and oil. By 1999 this figure increased again to 30 million tonnes, or almost 24% of total world catch of fish, representing a return to a more normal level as a result of the recovery of fishing in South America (03W2).
Of the 110 million tonnes of fish landed from the world's oceans, lakes and streams in 1994, 33 million tonnes were used for fishmeal and fish oil (97W1).
Fish used for fishmeal, fertilizer, and fish oil has been around 20 million tonnes/ year (Ref. 3 of (85B1)). Comments: Today's values are significantly higher.
The amount of fish that goes to animal feed is unlikely to increase because of the limited potential for increasing the catch of these high-volume (low trophic-level) species (Ref. 40 of Ref. (98W1)).
A third of all fish landed globally go into fishmeal and oils used for agriculture and aquaculture. But raising more vegetarian fish like carp, tilapia and shellfish and not supplementing their food with fishmeal or oils would help alleviate the problem (01H1).
Fish Meal Consumption, 1961-63, in 1000 tonnes (81C1)
Industrialized Nations - - - -| - -| 2408
- -North America~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | 668| -
- -Europe ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ |1355| -
- - - EEC~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ |734 | ~ ~| -
- - - Northwest Europe ~ |517 | ~ ~| -
- - - Southern Europe~ ~ |104 | ~ ~| -
- -Other Industrial Countries | 385| -
- - - Japan~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ |340 | ~ ~| -
- - - Others ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | 45 | ~ ~| -
Centrally planned Countries ~ | ~ ~| 231
- -USSR ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | 119| -
- -Other European Countries ~ | 112| -
Less Developed Countries~ ~ ~ | - -| ~221
World Total ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | - -| 2860
Meal from Offal ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | - -| ~230
Meal from Fish~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | - -| 2630
Fish for meal ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | - -|13150
(5 tons fish = one ton meal.) Comments:
Current consumption is much higher due to demand from aquaculture.
[D] - Harvest- and Population Data - Freshwater Capture Fisheries -
6.5% of the 1995 harvest of fish, crustaceans and mollusks came from freshwater capture-fisheries (Ref. 13 of (98W1)).
Freshwater capture-fisheries (7.2 million tons in 1995) do not have much potential for growth. China is the single largest freshwater fishery (1.4 million tons in 1995). River production in China and other countries has declined due to pollution, dams and other habitat degradation (Ref. 38 of (98W1)).
During the 1990s, production from fisheries in inland waters expanded from 6.4 million tonnes in 1990 to nearly 8.3 million tonnes in 1999. However, inland fishery catches are believed to be greatly under-reported (99F3). This is because of the dispersed and informal nature of many inland fisheries, and because many inland fish are bartered, sold or consumed locally without entering into the formal economy. For example, inland fisheries in Brazil, Ghana and several Southeast Asian countries may be 2-6 times more productive, in terms of catch actually taken, as officially reported (03W2).
Freshwater catch: 5.8 million tons in 1984; 7.2 million tons in 1995 (98W1).
Global freshwater catch in 1991: 6.4 million tons (Ref. 20 of (94W2)).
Fish Catches (1985-87) (Table 23.2 of Ref. (90B2))
(Catch data are in 1000 tonnes/ year.) (Ref. (90B2) has a nation-by-nation breakdown of these figures, plus aquaculture production data.)
- - - - - - - | ~ ~ ~|Fresh~ | - -
Region- - - - |Marine|Water~ | Total
Africa~ ~ ~ ~ | 3,049| 1,646 | 4,695
N./Cent. Amer.| 8,306| ~ 276 | 8,582
South America |12,275| ~ 340 |12,615
Asia~ ~ ~ ~ ~ |32,304| 7,725 |40,029
Europe~ ~ ~ ~ |12,298| ~ 449 |12,747
USSR~ ~ ~ ~ ~ |10,041| ~ 940 |10,981
Oceania ~ ~ ~ | ~ 682| ~ ~11 | ~ 693
World ~ ~ ~ ~ |78,955|11,388 |90,343
Comments: These data apparently include fish-farming production and fish caught for use as fish-meal and fish oil.
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