Scientists may have just discovered a way to save the world’s fish — and it can be done while helping fishermen at the same time.
That’s right, we can have our fish and eat it too, if we act responsibly, claim scientists from the University of California – Santa Barbara, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the University of Washington, who have compiled a database of 4,500 world fisheries and used bioeconomic models to figure out management techniques to restore the fish populations of the world while boosting profits, according to an Environmental Defense Fund statement.
Using management reforms, fisheries could boost their profit to $53 billion and their takings to 16 million metric tons, as well as 619 MMT in biomass relative to usual business, and it would take less than a decade, the experts say in a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
This could lead to a rights-based fishery management system that would ensure increasing fish population levels, higher pries for fish, and lower fishing costs. Fishermen would have a quota of fish rather than simply racing to grab as much fish as possible.
The findings indicate that “the world’s fisheries could be recovered in just 10 years, and that global fish populations could double by 2050 with better fishing practices compared to business as usual,” the statement reads. “The recovery of struggling fisheries would bring a significant increase in the amount of seafood that could be caught over time to feed the world’s growing population. Three billion people worldwide rely on seafood as a key source of protein and about 260 million people work in fishery-related sectors, many of whom live in developing countries.”
If reforms were implemented today, the percentage of fisheries that are biologically healthy would increase from 47 percent to 77 percent in just 10 years, and there would be a 204 percent increase in profits by 2050 for fishermen.