According to a University of British Columbia study published this week, the world's fish catch increased five fold between 1950 and 2005. The fish catch in 2008 was 79.5 million tons. This has been a good news story for the fishing industry and the world's food supply. But as the graphic below illustrates, the increased tonnage caught is due to expansion of the ocean areas being fished. Now, there's really nowhere else to go, except perhaps into the two polar regions.
I point this out for two reasons. First, it's reasonable to expect fish catch numbers will begin to decrease (even without international catch limits) since the productive fishing grounds have already been exploited. Second, the exploitation areas today are so vast compared to 1950, it's almost unimaginable how regulators will manage catch limits if international limits are agreed to. Nevertheless, I hope the catch tonnage can be managed so that the numbers reach a healthy sustainable level, since the alternative is loss of an incredibly important source of protein and the demise of a profession and key segment of the maritime community.
RADM W
Fisheries expansion
Scientists who mapped the expansion of fisheries say the globe has run out of new fishing areas and that current fishing methods aren't sustainable.
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