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|  The database on world numbers of fishers and fish farmers is disseminated as a trilingual Fisheries Circular "Numbers of Fishers", No.929 (and subsequent revisions). It presents the number of people engaged in fishing according to the working time devoted to the occupation, as national annual averages, from 1961 onwards. Starting with data for 1990, the database includes employment in aquaculture and separates inland and marine fisheries, on a gender disaggregated basis.Fish is particularly important as a source of micronutrients, minerals, essential fatty acids and proteins and it makes a very significant contribution to the diet of many fish consuming communities in both the developed and developing world. Taken globally about 1 billion people rely on fish as their main source of animal proteins and in coastal areas the dependence on fish is usually higher. About 20% of the world's population derives at least 20% of animal protein from fish and some small island nations depend on fish almost exclusively. Despite fluctuations in supply and demand due to the state of the fishery resources, the economic climate and environmental conditions, fisheries and aquaculture remain very important to many countries and communities as a source of food, employment and revenue. | | | | Total food fish supply has grown from 27.6 million tonnes in 1961 to nearly 94 million tonnes in 1997. Average apparent consumption has increased from about 9 kg per person per annum in the early 60s to 16 kg in 1997. Per caput availability of fish and fishery products has therefore nearly doubled in 40 years, outpacing population growth which also has nearly doubled in the same period. World fishery production has increased from 39.2 million tonnes in 1961 to 122.1 million tonnes in 1997. The increase in production of 20 million tonnes over the last decade was mainly due to aquaculture, both from traditional rural aquaculture and intensive commercial aquaculture of high value species, capture fishery production having remained relatively stable. Currently, two thirds of the total food fish supply are obtained from fishing in marine and inland waters; the remaining one third is derived from the production of aquaculture. The contribution of inland and marine capture fisheries to per caput food supply has stabilized (10 -11 kg per caput in the period 1984 to 1998). | | | | During the period 1967-1997 world fishery production increased from 56.9 million tonnes to 122.1 million tonnes and world exports of fish and fishery exports grew from 5.6 million tonnes in 1967 to 24.7 million tonnes in 1997. | | | | In the same period, total food fish supply has grown from 35.8 million tonnes in 1967 to nearly 94 million tonnes in 1997.The role of fish in nutrition exhibits marked continental, and regional and national differences. In 1997 per caput food fish supply was higher in Oceania with 19.9 kg, followed by Europe (18.5 kg), Asia (17.9 kg), North and Central America (16.7 kg), South America (10.0 kg) and Africa (7.1 kg). In industrialized countries, where diets are generally more diversified as far as animal proteins are concerned, supply has increased from 13.2 million tonnes to 26.7 millions, with an implied per caput supply progressing from 19.7 kg to 27.7 kg between 1961 and 1997, at a rate close to 1% per annum. Fish supply per caput in Low Income-Food Deficit Countries (LIFDC) was on average one fifth of that of the richest countries in the early 60s, but the gap has gradually reduced and in 1997 it was close to half of the average consumption in the more affluent economies. If China is excluded, however, per caput supply has grown from 4.9 kg to 7.8 kg in the period, at an annual rate of 1.3%. Despite the relatively small consumption in weight, in LIFDCs the contribution of fish to animal protein intake is considerable (close to 20% of total animal protein). In the course of the last four decades, however, the share of fish proteins to animal proteins has exhibited a slight negative trend due to a faster growth in consumption of other animal products. | | | | In 1997 of the 93.8 million tonnes available for consumption world-wide in 1997, only 5.2 million tonnes were consumed in Africa (with a per caput supply of 7.1 kg) whereas two thirds of the total was consumed in Asia, 31.7 million tonnes in Asia-less-China (13.7 kg per person) and an equivalent amount in China alone (where the apparent supply amounted to 25.7 kg per person). Europe consumed 13.7 million tonnes, representing 14.6% of the world total, while North and Central America consumed 7.8 million tonnes and South America 3.3 million tonnes. | | | | With total food fish supply growing at a rate of 3.6% per annum since 1961 -while world population was expanding at 1.8%- the proteins derived from fish, crustaceans and molluscs, have been accounting for between 13.8% and 16.5% of the animal protein intake by the human population. Fish contributes up to 180 calories per day but at such high levels only in a handful of countries where there are not many alternative protein foods locally grown and where a preference for fish has been developed and maintained (examples are Japan, Iceland and some small island states). More typically fish provides in the order of 20 to 30 calories per day. Fish proteins are essential and critical in the diet of some densely populated countries where the absolute intake level may also be small (e.g. with shares of contribution above or close to 50% in Bangladesh, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Japan, Senegal) and very important in the diets of many more countries (e.g. Cambodia, Benin, Angola, Republic of Korea). | | | | The absolute amount of fish consumed and the species composition of the food supply are diverse regionally and country-wise, reflecting different levels of natural availability of the aquatic resources in adjacent waters as well as different food traditions, taste, demand and income levels. Demersal fish are highly preferred in North Europe and North America, cephalopods are consumed by selected Mediterranean and Asian countries, and to a much lesser extent in other continents. Crustaceans -despite the fast growing contribution of aquaculture to production- are still highly priced commodities and their consumption is mostly concentrated in affluent economies. | | | | Of the 16.1 kg available for consumption on a per caput basis in 1997, the vast majority (75%) was of finfish. Shellfish supplied 25% -or 4 kg- subdivided into 1.4 kg of crustaceans, 2.2 kg of molluscs and 0.4 of cephalopods. In terms of total supply, 25 million tonnes were of freshwater and diadromous species combined together. Marine finfish species provided 45 million tonnes subdivided into 16 million tonnes of demersal species , 19 million of pelagics and 10 million tonnes of unidentified and miscellaneous marine fish. The remaining 20% of the food supply were of shellfish, comprising 8 million tonnes of crustaceans, 2.5 million tonnes of cephalopods and 13 million tonnes of other molluscs. Historically, there have not been dramatic changes in the broad groups' shares contribution to average world consumption: demersal fish species have stabilized around 2.7 kg per caput and pelagic fish have been steadily contributing 3.2 kg per caput. Two groups are exceptions in that they have shown considerable increases: the availability of crustaceans per caput has more than trebled from 0.4 to 1.4 kg, largely based on production of shrimps and prawns from aquaculture practices, and molluscs similarly increased from 0.6 to 2.2 kg per caput from 0.6 kg between 1961 and 1997. | | | | The FAO/WAICENT food balance sheets database is used to prepare a publication providing statistics of total and per caput fish supply in live weight and contribution of fish to animal protein supply by country. | | | | |
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