Growing threat of a fishless future
functioning, growth retardation and negative cognitive effects, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Writing in Nature, lead author Christopher Golden said: “We predict that more than 10% of the global population could face micronutrient and fatty-acid deficiencies.” This represents a “perfect storm” for countries that rely on fish caught at sea for nutrition, he said.
In Africa, Angola, Ghana and Nigeria are the most vulnerable to decreasing fish stocks.
Climate change will exacerbate the problem, according to the Harvard research. Floods and droughts are happening more often in this region. This is destroying crops on land, leaving the ocean as the last source of staple food. In these cases, the team said: “Fishing for food has become an act of desperation.”
It’s been suggested that aquacul- ture can be the solution for declining fish stocks. On an industrial scale, it would allow natural fish stocks to recover. But, said the researchers, developing countries do not have the resources to do this. They also found that farmed seafood ends up being sold in Europe and North America.
In that part of the world, moving away from fish (and meat) is a decision that people can willingly take because they can afford supplements and to vary their diet.
The Harvard team said people in the developing world — where fish and meat are increasingly unavailable — do not have this option. On top of that, people in those countries face more diseases and need a healthier diet to survive. In other words, those who need the nutrients the most are those who cannot afford them.
The effects of this are well docu- mented by the WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation. A fifth of pregnant women have irondeficient anaemia and a third are vitamin-A deficient. The organisations say these children will start life on the back foot, having not grown to full physical and mental size in the womb.
Golden said countries had to take the problem of declining fish stocks far more seriously. Where there is a focus on fisheries, it is on the potential loss to biodiversity and income, but “there should be a much stronger emphasis on human health”. That would allow for the creation of policies that change agriculture to a point where there is enough food to feed the world’s population.
Having looked at 5 000 fisheries, Golden’s team said that just by managing things better, fish catches could increase by 10%.