The world fisheries do they have any future?

The future of the fisheries is burdened by political trends, ruling economic and social factors. The development of fisheries is in the midst of the need to feed a growing human population and the consequences of the depletion of exploited stocks, motivated by economic interests and constrained by their finite biomass. Economic factors, social factors and the dynamics of fisheries face each other, multiple interacting problems, but they all have their own dynamics and complicate the possibility of finding isolated and independent solutions. Aquaculture seems to offer a light of hope for mankind by helping to solve the problem of producing food from the sea. However, this is not a permanent solution. There are certain trends in fishery development which in practice, may contribute to a future that can help fisheries to become truly sustainable, such as reduction of discharges, gradual reduction of large vessels, improvement of management measures, increased involvement participation of the, eco-labeling of fishery products, reduction of illegal fishing, relative price stability and certification of many fisheries, among others. All these factors open a window of hope that allows us to expect that the sustainability of fishing can become a reality, rather than a utopia. It is remarkable to realize that the maximum yield of the world oceans approaches very close to 100 M mt and the biomass of all the exploited stocks is near to 200 M mt. Current yield and stock biomass are nearly 40% below their maxima. Assessment of the main world fisheries suggest that nearly 45 M mt, could be obtained additionally by increasing mesh opening.

Biography :

Ernesto A Chavez, Ph D (1978) is a Professor of the Marine Sciences Research Centre in La Paz, Mexico. His interests include Bio-Economic Assessment of Fisheries, Impact of Climate on Fisheries, Coral Reef Ecology. He is Teacher of the courses Fisheries Management and Coral Reef Ecology at his research Centre. He has been Adviser of 25 MSc thesis, BSc, 16 at the MSc Program and 5 at PhD level. He has led 17 research projects and has collaborated on another 16. He has published more than 150 scientific papers, including the Co-edition of a book on the coral reefs of the south Gulf of Mexico (2007), translated into Spanish (2010).

E-mail: echavez@ipn.mx

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