Overfishing: Full steam ahead

July 31, 2018 World Food Organization publishes report on fisheries and aquaculture

As more and more fish stocks worldwide are overfished and exploited, the total catch in global marine fisheries is shrinking. This is evident from the new report of the FAO "The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture".

The report was released on time on Fish-Dependence Day in July 2018. With this file, EU countries have used up their fish from domestic fisheries and are dependent on imports for the rest of the year to meet the demand.

Stella Nemecky, Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF Germany commented: "With increasing overfishing and catches falling, it is obvious that we are heading directly into an ecological and humanitarian catastrophe – full tilt. Large parts of the world's population depend on fish as food. When the fish disappears, not only the marine ecosystem but also man on land will suffer the consequences."

"The problem of overfishing also takes place right on our doorstep. The bread fish of the German Baltic Sea fisheries, such as herring and cod, are overfished. Germany and the other countries bordering the Baltic Sea countries must finally implement the EU guidelines for sustainable fisheries and give fish stocks time for recovery, so that the local fish stocks such as cod and Baltic herring can finally grow back to healthy size," Nemecky continued.

"At the same time, Germany must stand up for the UN and ongoing WTO negotiations to ban banned fishery subsidies that continue with overfishing in a binding agreement. Governments now need to invest in surveillance capacity and monitoring technologies, rather than spurring overfishing with subsidies, to effectively tackle illegal fishing," adds Nemecky.

Link zum Report: www.wwf.de/.../The-State-of-World-Fischeries.pdf