According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) about one billion people get their primary source of protein from fish, and about 520 million, or 8 percent of the world’s population, is economically dependent on fishing, directly and indirectly. But that source of food and income could be literally gone in 40 years.
Pavan Sukhdev, head of UNEP’s green economy initiative, said that is not as absurd as it sounds, as already 30 percent of the ocean fisheries have collapsed and are producing less than 10 percent of their original ability. The UNEP report shows that the financial benefit from acting to save fisheries would be substantial: $1.7 trillion in the best-case scenario, at a cost of $220-320 billion.
This also includes the cost of buying back some 9-13 million fishing vessels and relocating fishermen in other lines of work. The report divides the subsidies into the “good,” the “bad” and the “ugly”. Good subsidies, which encourage sustainable fishing, are only $7.9 billion of the total, while the bad, which lead to overcapacity and overexploitation, make up the lion share — 16.2 billion — of subsidies. Three billion dollars worth of ugly subsidies, like misguided conservation programs, actively reduce fish populations.
