During the past three decades, the number of fishers and aquaculturists has grown faster than the world’s population, and faster than employment in traditional agriculture. In 2004, an estimated 41 million people worked as fishers and fish farmers, the great majority of these in developing countries, principally in Asia. Significant increases in the most recent decades, particularly in Asia, are a result of the strong expansion of aquaculture activities. In 2004, fish farmers accounted for one-quarter of the total number of fish workers in the primary sector. China is by far the country with the highest number of fishers and fish farmers, reported to be 13 million in 2004, representing about 30 percent of the world total. Current fleet-size reduction programmes in China to tackle overcapacity are reducing the number of people engaged in capture fisheries, which declined by 13 percent during the period 2001-04. the numbers engaged in fishing and aquaculture in most industrialized economies have been declining or remain stationary.
The world fishing fleet comprised about 4 million units at the end of 2004, of which 1.3 million were decked vessels of various types, tonnage and power, and 2.7 million undecked (open) boats. While virtually all decked vessels were mechanized, only about one-third of the undecked fishing boats were powered, generally with outboard engines. the remaining two-thirds were traditional craft of various types operated by sail and oars. About 86 percent of the decked vessels were concentrated in Asia; the remainder were accounted for by Europe (7.8 percent), North and Central America (3.8 percent), Africa (1.3 percent), South America (0.6 percent) and Oceania (0.4 percent). Many countries have adopted policies to limit the growth of national fishing capacity or reduce it in order to protect the fishery resources and to make fishing economically viable for the harvesting enterprises. there are indications that the fleets of decked fishing vessels in longstanding developed fishing nations have continued to decrease in size, especially those operating offshore and in distant waters. However, even in these countries, the rate of reduction of fishing power is generally less significant than the rate of reduction of fishing vessels. On the other hand, some countries report a continuing expansion of their fleets. Overall, the number of fishing vessels worldwide did not change significantly in either 2003 or 2004.
Just as the world fishing fleet appears to have stabilized, the overall state of exploitation of the world’s marine fishery resources has tended to remain relatively stable, although for resources this has been the case for a longer period of time. Over the past 10-15 years, the proportion of overexploited and depleted stocks has remained unchanged, after showing a marked increase during the 1970s and 1980s. It is estimated that in 2005, as in recent years, around one-quarter of the stock groups monitored by FAO were underexploited or moderately exploited and could perhaps produce more, whereas about half of the stocks were fully exploited and therefore producing catches that were at, or close to, their maximum sustainable limits, with no room for further expansion. the remaining stocks were either overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion and thus were yielding less than their maximum potential owing to excess fishing pressure. the situation seems more serious for certain fishery resources that are exploited solely or partially in the high seas and, in particular, for straddling stocks and for highly migratory oceanic sharks. this confirms earlier observations that the maximum wild capture fishery potential from the world’s oceans has probably been reached and reinforces the calls for more cautious and effective fisheries management to rebuild depleted stocks and prevent the decline of those being exploited at or close to their maximum potential. In the case of inland fishery resources, there is widespread overfishing, arising from either intensive targeting of individual large-size species in major river systems or overexploitation of highly diverse species assemblages or ecosystems in the tropics.
Total world trade in fish and fishery products reached a record value of uS$71.5 billion (export value) in 2004, representing a 23 percent growth relative to 2000. Preliminary estimates for 2005 indicate a further increase in the value of fishery exports. In real terms (adjusted for inflation), exports of fish and fishery products increased by 17.3 percent during the period 2000-04. In terms of quantity, exports in live-weight-equivalent terms in 2004 accounted for 38 percent of total fisheries and aquaculture production, confirming fish as one of the most highly traded food and feed commodities. the share of fish trade in both total gross domestic product (GDP) and agricultural GDP has roughly doubled over the past 25 years. China has been the world’s main exporter since 2002, and in 2004 its fish exports were valued at uS$6.6 billion following remarkable average annual growth of 12 percent in the period 1992-2004. the fishery net exports of developing countries (i.e. the total value of their exports less the total value of their imports) have shown a continuing rising trend over the past two decades, growing from uS$4.6 billion in 1984 to uS$16.0 billion in 1994 to uS$20.4 billion in 2004. these figures are significantly higher than those for other agricultural commodities such as rice, coffee and tea. Shrimp continues to be the most important commodity traded in value terms, accounting for 16.5 percent of the total value of internationally traded fishery products in 2004, followed by groundfish (10.2 percent), tuna (8.7 percent) and salmon (8.5 percent). In 2004, fishmeal represented around 3.3 percent of the value of exports and fish oil less than 1 percent.
In the realm of marine fisheries governance, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) play a unique role in facilitating international cooperation for the conservation and management of fish stocks. these organizations currently represent the only realistic means of governing fish stocks that occur either as straddling or shared stocks between zones of national jurisdiction, between these zones and the high seas, or exclusively on the high seas. Strengthening REMOs in order to conserve and manage fish stocks more effectively remains the major challenge facing international fisheries governance. Despite efforts over the past decade to improve their management capacity and their images as effective and responsive organizations, some REMOs have failed to achieve their fundamental goal of the sustainable management of stocks, which has in turn led to increasing international criticism. However, many RFMOs are taking steps to implement the ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) and are striving to adopt the precautionary approach; strengthening international cooperation; promoting transparency; encouraging eligible non-members to become members of organizations or to become cooperating non-parties/entities; and enhancing compliance and enforcement through improved monitoring, control and surveillance.
Similarly for inland fisheries, there is a need for a system of governance for transboundary fisheries and fishery resources. Many of the world’s large river basins cross one or several international borders, and many riverine fish species migrate across boundaries with the result that activities in one country may affect fish stocks and communities exploiting the fish stocks in another country. Appropriate fisheries management in such cases requires that suitable policies for sustaining the shared resources (water and biological resources) are developed at the regional level, and that these policies are incorporated into national legislation and implemented. regional frameworks do exist that deal with the management of inland waters and living aquatic resources, and there have been some recent encouraging developments in this area. But governance remains incomplete as only 44 percent of the international basins are the subject of one or more agreements, and these agreements may not include fisheries. Not only are inland fisheries unlikely to become the primary focus in all water management programmes, but there is also a risk that the needs of fishing communities and small-scale fisheries would not be considered in such programmes unless water governance systems are designed to include inland fisheries.
Unlike capture fisheries, aquaculture activities are generally located within national jurisdictions, and so governance is a national responsibility. there is growing understanding that sustainable development of the aquaculture sector requires an enabling environment, with appropriate institutional, legal and management frameworks guided by an overall policy. Notable progress has been made in a number of institutional, legal and management development areas, including the use of various public- and private-sector partnership arrangements. Integrated land-use and environmental planning are being pursued and regulations implemented, often through self-regulation according to codes of practice. Co-management is an emerging trend, usually applied in the management of common property resources, and as such has been effective in culture-based fisheries, a form of aquaculture practised communally in small water bodies in rural areas.
In recent years, issues relevant to international trade in fishery products have been prominent. they include labelling and traceability requirements; ecolabelling; illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; the sustainable development of aquaculture; subsidies in production and trade agreements. Some of these issues form part of the agenda for the multilateral trade negotiations in the World trade Organization (WTO), where countries also discuss fisheries and pay particular a