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Abstract
More people in the world to feed, rising wealth and
a new focus on healthy foods are generating a rising
tide of demand for fish. This rise in demand is
happening just when the main sources of fish and
other aquatic life are struggling to keep pace, and
prices of many aquatic commodities are increasing.
Fish is caught from natural or wild fisheries stocks,
from enhanced and restored fisheries stocks and is
cultured on farms. All sources of supply present
economic opportunities but each faces major problems.
Most natural fish stocks are heavily depleted
already, and continue to be over-exploited because
fisheries management is inadequate to counter the
drive to exploit. Aquaculture has made great progress
in some countries, largely driven by markets
and specific innovations but ignoring externalities
such as the environment, feeds and social equity.
Stock restoration and stock enhancement show
promise for some species and some environments
but have received little development attention.
Whether the poor will rise on or submerge under
the tide of fish demand depends on how affordable
fish remains, and what access they have to the
means of fish production for income and livelihood.
Policy, technical and business solutions are
needed to help the poor meet the challenges. The
solutions are location and country-specific, but advances
should be sought on three fronts: (1) domesticating
key species for aquaculture production
systems and selecting good candidate species for
restoring and enhancing stocks in the wild, (2)
making fish trade, development assistance and
fisheries cooperation strategies coherent to enhance
developing country capacity to capture equitable
benefits of fish trade, and (3) managing
natural fisheries resources to restore them and
make them sustainable.