According to a report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Bank the fishing fleets from all over the globe are wasting huge amount as the stocks are decline. The report also said that the damage to fish stocks through over-fishing has resulted in larger fleets chasing fewer resources. The report revealed that the waste amounts to 63 percent of the $80 billion worth of fish caught each year.
Scientists expressed that the world’s fisheries may collapse by 2048 if catch levels are maintained. Government subsidies have reduced incentives for change. The report exclaimed that reducing fleet capacity would increase profitability and allow fish stocks to recover, increasing yields. Rolf Willmann, the UN’s senior fishery planning officer and one of the report’s authors, told that the real income levels of fishers are depressed, much of the industry is unprofitable, fish stocks are depleted and other sectors of the economy foot the bill for an ailing fishing industry.
It is said that the global fish stocks have been fished to 90 percent below historic levels and may disappear by 2048 unless the catch is reduced and policies are changed. Kieran Kelleher, the World Bank’s fisheries team leader, said in the statement that sustainable fisheries require political will to replace incentives for over-fishing with incentives for responsible stewardship.
