World’s fisheries in crisis as more boats chase smaller stock

World’s fisheries in crisis as more boats chase smaller stock

April 15, 2009, Frank Pope, Ocean Correspondent, Times Online

Nearly half the world’s fishing catch is either thrown back dead or sold without regard to whether the fish stock is endangered, according to a report released today.

Every year more than 38 million tonnes of marine life is taken from the sea without having been the intended target of the fishing vessels.

Traditional fishery management plans focus only on target species, leaving bycatch species heavily exploited and without any scientific control or monitoring.

The world’s fish stocks are in crisis: 80 per cent of the world’s fisheries are either fully exploited or overexploited and an estimated 90 per cent of all large predatory fish are gone.

Data from trawlers from 46 countries were sampled, along with two global fisheries, shark fin and tuna. At a bycatch rate of 92 per cent the shark fin industry topped the league. The shrimp fisheries of Bangladesh came out worst with over 95 per cent of the catch made up of non-target species.