Oceans and human beings

More than half the world’s inhabitants live near seacoasts today at a distance of less than 200 kilometers from the water. In 2025, this will be the case for more then three-quarters of the world population, in other words for 6.3 billion persons! Most of them don’t live in seaside resorts but are concentrated in enormous cities (metropolises) built on the coast. These city dwellers are often faced with poverty and some of them have less than two US dollars a day to live on.

    
           If so many people crowd next to the shore it’s because that’s where the resources needed to sustain life are found in other words primarily fishing. But this poses a majors problem because as the world population continues to grow and is concentrated in coastal areas it will increasingly depend on ocean resources.

Sea Fish

UNESCO’S proposal for sustainable development and for lowering poverty the coming decade, emphasis that both an economically viable way of life and the riches of the ocean must be mad accessible to all, as well as an environment that is safer and healthier for coastal population.  

  

♦ Fishing, a vital food source

Fishing is the most widespread economic activity of the world’s oceans. If fishing practices were better controlled this industry could feed more people and provide more jobs, especially in developing countries. But today, most fishing zones are being fished out. This is not surprising: 90 million tons of fish are caught each year! To arrive at this figure, fishermen haul in fish of any size and any age, including the very young, and those during their reproductive phase. Species don’t have enough time to reproduce and their population decrease more and more each year. 

Sea Fish Archive

Cooked Fish

Industries fishing techniques can be held responsible for over fishing And they also harm coastal fisheries. Poorly equipped, local fishermen work the waters close to the shoreline where the fish, which are victims of both over fishing and higher concentrations of pollution than in the open sea, are becoming increasingly scarce. In the southern part of the globe the inhabitants of many fishing villages have barely enough fish to eat. It is consequently nearly impossible for them to sell their catch.