Asia heads for over-fishing crisis as demand just keeps growing

ASIA - Although Japan will remain the biggest fish consumer on a per capita basis, China - with a projected population of 1.4 billion - will take by far the biggest amount of fish by 2010, an estimated 28.4 million tonnes. Can wild fisheries and aquaculture meet the demand from Asia and the rest of the planet?

Last March the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) issued a grim snapshot of the state of world fisheries in a biannual report that warned of growing pressures on stocks since 2002 that was unsustainable.

The FAO said 52 per cent of world fish stocks were fully exploited, compared with 47 per cent three years ago, while nearly 25 per cent were over-exploited. It said that seven of the top-10 marine fish species were already stretched to their limits, including Chilean jack mackerel, Alaska pollock, Japanese anchovy and blue whiting.

"Stock depletion has implications for food security and economic development, reduces social welfare in countries around the world and undermines the wellbeing of underwater ecosystems," said Ichiro Nomura, FAO assistant director general for fisheries.

The UN agency forecast that total world consumption of fish may rise by more than 25 per cent to 181 million tonnes by 2015, underscoring the urgent need to rebuild depleted wild fish stocks while increasing coastal farm fish production. Yet the latter, now widely practised in Asia, is problematic because it often causes environmental damage.

Over the past few decades, aquaculture development in Asia, especially shrimp farming, has led to the destruction of hundreds of thousands of hectares of mangrove forests, which are vital for filtering nutrients, cleansing water and protecting coastlines from floods and storms.

In the Philippines, for example, it has been estimated that as much as 65 per cent of the original 450,000ha of mangroves have been converted to other uses, chiefly brackish water fishponds.

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Source: New Zealand Herald

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