Of the 171 million tonnes of total fish production in 2016, about 88 percent (over 151 million tonnes) was utilized for direct human consumption, a share that has increased significantly in recent decades. The greatest part of the 12 percent used for non-food purposes (about 20 million tonnes) was reduced to fishmeal and fish oil (about 15 million tonnes mainly originating from marine capture fisheries). Loss or wastage between landing and consumption decreased, but still accounts for an estimated 27 percent of landed fish. Excluding aquatic plants, global fish production peaked at about 171 million tonnes in 2016, with aquaculture representing 47 percent of the total and 53 percent if non-food uses (including reduction to fishmeal and fish oil) are excluded. In addition, the world production of aquatic plants, mostly seaweeds, reached 31.2 million tonnes in 2016, of which 30.1 million tonnes (96.5 percent) was harvested from aquaculture. With 79.3 million tonnes produced from marine waters and 11.6 million tonnes from inland waters, global capture fisheries production totalled 90.9 million tonnes in 2016, a small decrease in comparison to the two previous years. Alaska pollock surpassed again anchoveta as the top species in 2016, with the highest catches since 1998. Inland catches provide a key food source for many local communities, especially in land-locked and low-income countries in Asia and Africa. In 2016, sixteen countries, mostly in Asia, produced almost 80 percent of these catches. World aquaculture production reached 80.0 million tonnes of food fish in 2016. With 5.8 percent annual growth rate during the period 20012016, aquaculture continues to grow faster than other major food production sectors, but it no longer enjoys the high annual growth rates of around 10 percent experienced in the 1980s and 1990s. Also, the disparity in the level of sectoral development and uneven production distribution remain great among the countries within the regions and across the world. Between 1961 and 2016, the average annual increase in global food fish consumption (3.2 percent) outpaced population growth (1.6 percent). In per capita terms, food fish consumption grew from 9.0 kg in 1961 to 20.2 kg in 2015, at an average rate of about 1.5 percent per year. Preliminary estimates point to further growth reaching about 20.5 kg in 2017. Moreover, about 3.2 billion people get from fish almost 20 percent of their average per capita intake of animal protein in 2015. Many millions of people around the world find a source of income and livelihood in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. In 2016, about 59.6 million people were engaged in their primary sectors, on a full-time, part-time or occasional basis. Engagement in aquaculture was estimated to be 32 percent of the total (an increasing proportion compared to the 1990s), or 19.3 million people. Women play an important role in this workforce and represent about 14 percent of the people employed in the primary sector and about half of them if the secondary sector is included. In 2016, the total fleet was estimated at 4.6 million vessels and this is within the range of 4.5 4.7 million vessels between 2011 and 2016. Three-quarters of these vessels are found in Asia. More than 60 percent of all vessels were motorized and most (86 percent) of these motorized vessels were less than 12 meters overall length. On the contrary, the largest vessels, classified as those greater than 24 meters overall length made up about 2 percent of the total fleet. Based on FAO’s monitoring of assessed marine fish stocks, the fraction of marine fish stocks fished within biologically sustainable levels has continued to decline from 90.0 percent in 1974 to 66.9 percent in 2015. Thus, 33.1 percent of fish stocks were estimated as fished at biologically unsustainable level and therefore overfished. In 2015, maximally sustainably fished stocks (formerly termed fully fished stocks) accounted for 59.9 percent and underfished stocks for 7.0 percent of the total assessed stocks. Fish and fish products are some of the most traded food items in the world today, with about 35 percent of global fish production entering international trade in 2016. Trade in fish and fish products reached USD 143 billion in 2016 and it is expected to have reached a new peak at about USD152 billion in 2017. Developing countries play a key role in this trade and during the past 40 years, the growth rate of exports from developing countries has increased faster than from developed ones.