Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Global landings remained around 90 Mt during the second half of the i rst decade
of the twenty-i rst century, falling slightly from 94 Mt in 2005 to 92 Mt in 2006
and then stabilizing at just below 90 Mt (FAO 2011a). Freshwater landings added
up to about 10% of this total (9.4 Mt in 2005, 10.2 Mt in 2008), with i sh species
accounting for nearly 90% of harvests in inland waters. Marine landings have not
departed far from 80 Mt/year, declining from 86.8 Mt in 2000 to 81.5 Mt in 2003
and to 79.5 Mt in 2008. About 85% of those totals were marine i shes, with mol-
lusks contributing about 8% and crustaceans about 6%. Worldwide i sh catches
have been dominated by the anchoveta (Peruvian anchovy), with landings just above
10 Mt/year until 2005 and above 7 Mt/year afterward. Alaskan pollock comes next
(between 2.5 and almost 3 Mt/year), followed by roughly equal masses (each about
2.5 Mt/year) of Atlantic herring (
Clupea harengus
) and skipjack tuna (
Katsuwonus
pelamis
) and chub mackerel (
Scombrus japonicus
), with nearly 2 Mt/year.
These top i ve species now make up about 25% of all marine i sh landings. In
national terms China has been the largest producer, with total landings leveling off
at between 14 and 15 Mt/year. An anchoveta bounty puts Peru in second place, with
landings l uctuating between 6 and more than 9 Mt/year. Indonesia, the United
States, and Japan (each with more than 4 Mt/year) complete the top i ve. In regional
terms, the Northwest Pacii c has recently yielded about 20 Mt/year, and the western
Central Pacii c and Southeast Pacii c are nearly equal second and third most bounti-
ful i shing areas, each with about 11 Mt/year. The Northwest Atlantic still ranks
fourth, ahead of the eastern Indian Ocean.
Accounting for global aquatic harvests gets even more complicated because
aquacultural production is now of the same order of magnitude as are marine
catches. Whereas in 1950 freshwater and marine aquaculture (including seaweeds)
contributed less than 15% of all landings, by the year 2000 its global output
of 35 Mt had reached about 27% of the total, and in 2008 aquaculture added
more than 52 Mt, to nearly 90 Mt of captured species, or 37% of all i shes,
invertebrates, and aquatic plants used for food, feed, and fertilizer (FAO 2011a).
Unlike the capture of wild species, aquacultural production comes largely from
inland waters and is dominated by three carp species—silver carp (
Hypophthal-
michthys molitrix
), grass carp (
Ctenopharyngodon idella
), and common carp (
Cyp-
rinus caprio
)—with salmonids in a distant second place, and its growth has been
disproportionately concentrated in China (now accounting for about 70% of the
global production).
While the aquacultural statistics may be fairly accurate, there are major concerns
about the quality of the FAO's data on global and national landings of i sh and
