Nearly one in four people across the planet don’t have access to a nutritious diet. But the latest “State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture” (SOFIA) report by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) outlines a “blue transformation” with the potential to take the edge off critical food security issues.
Aquaculture production hit a record-breaking 122.6 million metric tons in 2020, and has the potential to contribute more to human nutrition than it currently does, according to the report that the FAO released June 29 at the U.N. Ocean Conference in Lisbon. Sustainable aquaculture expansion and better fisheries management form the backbone of the report’s blue transformation vision, which aims to maximize global capacity to meet the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
We need to “accelerate actions to address food security while preserving our natural resources,” it says, noting that right now, “the world is not on track to end hunger and malnutrition and achieve the SDGs.”
The SOFIA report has been giving policymakers, scientists and civil society a deep dive into the global fisheries and aquaculture sectors since 1995. The flagship report, released every two years, reviews FAO and broader U.N. statistics, including those the FAO has been collecting on 500 fisheries stocks globally since 1974. It provides data, analysis and projections that inform decision-making internationally.
The new report brings in data that became available since the last SOFIA report was published, in 2020. According to it, more than 58 million people rely on direct employment in fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods. This figure leaps to 600 million when counting indirect workers and their dependents, Manuel Barange, director of the FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Division that produces the report, told a Lisbon press conference announcing the report’s release.
Around half of these are women and more than 84% are based in Asia, which continues to dominate both wild fisheries and aquaculture, accounting for 70% of global aquatic animal production.