Thursday, June 08, 2017

World Oceans Day

One more easily forgotten and over-looked day of conscience. But some facts should be heeded.

Rising sea temperatures are expected to slash catches of main fish species by 40 percent by 2050

Oceans could contain more plastics than fish by 2050

Fish accounts for 6.7 percent of all protein consumed by people worldwide and is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, calcium, zinc and iron

Almost 90 percent of fish stocks are overfished or fully exploited.

Overfishing costs more than $80 billion a year in lost revenues as dwindling supplies require extra effort to find and catch increasingly scarce fish

57 million people worldwide work in fishing or aquaculture

90 percent of the world's 4.6 million fishing boats are in Asia and Africa. Most are small or medium vessels, with only 64,000 more than 24 metres in length.

China is the world's main fish producer and exporter, while the European Union is the largest importer.

The global aquaculture industry has boomed in recent years, harvesting 74 million tonnes of fish up from about 20 tonnes in the early 1990s

Alaska Pollock, a whitefish commonly used to make fish sticks and fish and chips, was the most caught fish globally in 2014, followed by Peruvian Anchovy.


No comments: