Many people make their living directly or indirectly from fishery, quite independent of geographic regions. From Senegal to Germany, Spain to the Philippines, however, the stocks of hundreds of commercial fish species are collapsing as a result of years of erroneous fishery policies that were not oriented to the biology of fish stocks. This situation is now jeopardising the livelihoods of billions of people, particuarly in devloping countries. The article provides a brief overview of the current situation of world fisheries and indicates how simple means can sensitise wide sections of the population to the issue of overfishing.
Dr Bernd Ueberschär
Leibniz Institute for Marine Science (IfM-GEOMAR)