Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- About the editors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Globalization and fisheries: a necessarily interdisciplinary inquiry
- Part I Impacts of globalization on fisheries and aquatic habitats
- Part II Case studies of globalization and fisheries resources
- Part III Governance and multilevel management systems
- Part IV Ethical, economic, and policy implications
- 16 The intersection of global trade, social networks, and fisheries
- 17 Fishing for consumers: market-driven factors affecting the sustainability of the fish and seafood supply chain
- 18 Globalization and worth of fishery resources in an integrated market-based system
- 19 Can transgenic fish save fisheries?
- 20 Contributing to fisheries sustainability through the adoption of a broader ethical approach
- Part V Conclusions and recommendations
- Index
- Plate section
- References
19 - Can transgenic fish save fisheries?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- About the editors
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Globalization and fisheries: a necessarily interdisciplinary inquiry
- Part I Impacts of globalization on fisheries and aquatic habitats
- Part II Case studies of globalization and fisheries resources
- Part III Governance and multilevel management systems
- Part IV Ethical, economic, and policy implications
- 16 The intersection of global trade, social networks, and fisheries
- 17 Fishing for consumers: market-driven factors affecting the sustainability of the fish and seafood supply chain
- 18 Globalization and worth of fishery resources in an integrated market-based system
- 19 Can transgenic fish save fisheries?
- 20 Contributing to fisheries sustainability through the adoption of a broader ethical approach
- Part V Conclusions and recommendations
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Fisheries are in trouble. For decades, there have been warnings that fish harvests have reached or exceeded sustainable limits and that collapse of capture fisheries might be imminent. Recent evidence has overwhelmingly confirmed these dire predictions (Pauly et al. 1997; Pauly and Maclean 2003). Despite increased fishing effort and more effective equipment, total catch levels have remained stable or decreased every year since the mid 1990s (Vannuccini 2003). Dismal as this total catch statistic might be, it unfortunately paints a deceptively rosy picture. Ever-increasing inputs of money and technology are required to merely tread water – a constant total catch under these circumstances means a diminished return per unit of fishing effort. Moreover, looking only at tonnes of fish caught (the typical representation of total catch) masks the dramatic shifts that have taken place in the species making up that total catch (Garcia and Newton 1997). Increasing catches of low-value species (so-called “trash fish”) obscures the decline in almost every high-value demersal fishery and the profound impact that changing fish populations have had on the aquatic food web.
At the same time that fishers are expending more effort to catch fewer and less valuable fish, demand for fish is increasing at a rapid pace. The human population grows year by year, and food security continues to lag behind.
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- Information
- Globalization: Effects on Fisheries Resources , pp. 468 - 498Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007