27 June, 2024
The amount of fish harvested from aquaculture has overtaken wild-capture fisheries for the first time, according to a huge biannual report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Manuel Barange, director of the FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, said this was “a great result because it means that we can continue to increase the production of aquatic foods without increasing the impact on the marine environment, as less than 40% of aquaculture is produced in marine waters”.
The FAO’s State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (Sofia) report notes that aquaculture produced 51% of the 185 million tonnes of aquatic animals harvested in 2022 and 97% of 38 million tonnes of algae.
China is a huge part of this, producing 40% of the overall 223 million tonnes of seafood.
The country dominates aquaculture and continues to be the largest player in capture fisheries, accounting for 14.3% of the global harvest of 92 million tonnes in 2022. But the FAO notes that China is among those reducing the size of its fishing fleet, amid a push for greater sustainability.
China’s marine catches declined by around 18% between 2015 and 2022. “A continuation of a catch-reduction policy beyond the 13th and 14th five-year plans (2016–2020 and 2021–2025) is expected to result in further decreases in coming years, although 2022 marine capture catches were broadly similar to those in 2021,” states the Sofia report.
(Sources: Dialogue Earth)
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