2. What is the situation of fishers, fish farmers and the fishing fleet?
- 2.1 How many people are working as fishers and fish farmers?
- 2.2 How are fishing communities affected by emergencies?
- 2.3 What is the current status of the fishing fleet?
2.1 How many people are working as fishers and fish farmers?
2.1.1 In 2002, fishery and aquaculture production activities provided direct employment and revenue to an estimated 38 million people, 75% of which were involved in fishing and the remaining 25% in aquaculture.
Table 7: World Fishers and Fish Farmers by Continent
Table 8: Number of fishers and fish farmers in selected countries
Fishing is often a part-time occupation. The relative amount of time spent fishing depends, among other things, on seasonal resource availability, regulations that limit the year-round activity, the number of commercial licences available, and the degree of access to other land, water, or forestry resources. More...
2.1.2 Generally, the worldwide share of employment in capture fisheries is stagnating and aquaculture opportunities are increasing. The number of Chinese fishers and fish farmers combined (12.3 million) represents nearly one-third of the world total.
Purse Seiner, France
Source: FAO
In many industrialized countries employment in fishing and associated professions has been declining for several years. The fishing workforce is getting older, mainly because of the profession’s decreasing attractiveness to younger generations. However, available statistics indicate an increase in the number of aquaculture workers of about 8% per year since 1990, though this increase seemed to level off in 2000. More...
2.1.3 In countries where fishing and aquaculture are economically less prominent, detailed statistics are often not easily available. In many developing countries, the spouses and families of fishers are occupied in activities linked to coastal small-scale fishing. Reliable estimates of the number of people engaging in those activities are difficult to obtain. As a consequence, the socio-economic importance of these activities is difficult to measure and often underestimated, even if their contribution to production, income, and food security is substantial. More...
2.2 How are fishing communities affected by emergencies?
Natural hazards such as cyclones, floods, typhoons, sea surges, tidal waves, earthquakes, and landslides can have devastating effects on fishing communities through destroying fishing boats and equipment, or sweeping away homes. As a result, fishing communities may no longer be able to meet their basic survival needs. Developing countries, especially the poorest, suffer disproportionately from emergencies because they lack the means to prepare for them and to deal with their aftermath.
In emergency situations, support to the fishery sector may be critical. Because aquaculture requires both time and money, relief efforts should focus on restarting production where aquaculture operations had already been established and where the necessary skills are available. The capture of wild fish can provide immediate income and food as soon as the means of production are renewed.
Unlike livestock, fishing equipment such as nets and hooks are easy to transport and do not require high levels of skills to be developed. They can thus provide children and women, who are the most vulnerable people in an emergency, with proteins soon after the event. In spite of the significant role fisheries can and should play in relief and rehabilitation efforts, fisheries interventions do not always receive adequate attention in emergency operations. More...
2.3 What is the current status of the fishing fleet?
After years of expansion of the world fishing fleet up to the late 1980s and early 1990s, the number of decked vessels worldwide has remained fairly stable at around 1.3 million. In 2002, the total world fishing fleet also comprised about 2.8 million undecked vessels, of which only one third were motorized. Overall, three quarters of the total fishing fleet were operating in Asia.
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The number of large marine vessels increased until 2001 and has remained relatively stable since. The total combined capacity of such large vessels reached a peak in 1992 but declined subsequently because of the adoption of capacity containment programmes.
The average age of these larger marine fishing vessels is increasing. This raises concerns over the safety of both vessels and crew, as well as for the standards of accommodations for the crew. International conventions on labour conditions in the fishing industry and safety for fishermen and fishing vessels are currently being revised. Capacity management plans may require reducing this fleet, but larger vessels will continue to be needed for applications such as fishing in distant waters. It is therefore expected that the construction of larger fishing vessels will increase over the next ten years.
In several major fishing nations, such as New Zealand, the fleet size has continued to decrease, but detailed trends in the fishing fleet on a global scale since 1998 are not available. Important advances have been made to improve the monitoring and control of fisheries on high seas stocks. As of mid-2004, 5 517 vessels were recorded in the High Seas Vessels Authorization Record
An analysis of the fishing vessels that changed their flag state in 2003 suggests continued high activity in “flag of convenience” countries, although there are indications that the number of such vessels are decreasing. In 2003, several of the major fishing nations appeared to be substantially reducing their numbers of large vessels with a capacity of 100 GT and above, as vessels are flagging out of the national registries. Many of those vessels do not register in another country, and thus fall in the “unknown” category. The Lloyd’s Register
