August 9, 2004

FAO: Fishery Resources In Asia, Pacific Declining

Fishery resources in Asia and the Pacific region was declining fast with more small fish with low market value being captured, the United States Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Friday.

Over the past 30 years, fishery in the region has reflected the trend of changing from capturing larger sized demersal (bottom-dwelling) fish towards smaller pelagic, said a FAO report presented to the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission during a meeting held in northern Thai city of Chiang Mai.

Small fish species, damaged catch and juvenile fish targeted in these fisheries are referred to as "trash fish" and have a low market value, according to the report.

An increasing proportion of this "trash fish" is used directly or indirectly as fish meal in aquaculture and livestock feed.

"Demand is fast outstripping supply and prices are expected to rise, resulting in greater incentives to target these fish and aggravate the over-fishing problem in the area," said the FAO report.

The UN agency estimates that the amount of "trash fish" being landed now exceeds 60 percent of the total marine production from the South China Sea, about 60 percent of the catch in the Gulf of Thailand, 30 to 80 percent in Vietnam, and 50 percent in trawl catches from Western Malaysia.

Meanwhile, FAO cited a study by the World Fish Center as saying that over the last 25 years the amount of fish available in the region has declined to between 6 and 33 percent of their original abundance.

Coastal fisheries in the region will continue to decline unless excess fishing capacity and fishing effort are greatly reduced, warned FAO.

The Asia-Pacific region is the world's largest producer of fish, for both aquaculture and capture fisheries, accounting for 91 and 48 percent of total world production respectively.