Sheri Voebel in her message of 10 February drew attention to the FAO
publication 'Review of the State of World Aquaculture', available on it Web
site, and particularly to a Table, Fish Food Balance Sheet.
I can commend this publication to all who have an interest in the
contribution of aquaculture to world food supplies and I welcome Sheri's
drawing attention to it. It can be downloaded from the net, though it is a
large file, and it can also be obtained in the printed form; the reference
is 'Review of the State of World Aquaculture', FAO Fisheries Circular No.
886, Rev 1. FAO, Rome, 1997, 163p., ISSN 0429-9329. (The companion
publication, 'The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, 1996', FAO,
Rome, 1997, 125p, ISSN 1020-5489, reviews the situation with regard to
capture fisheries). In 1996 aquaculture animal production was 26.3 million
tonnes compared with a total from capture fisheries of 94.0 million tonnes.
However a significant amount of the capture fish goes for fish meal, (a
negligible amount, if any of the aquaculture does so), and the amount
available for human consumption was 64.3 million tonnes from this source.
Aquaculture production, on a world wide basis, supplied 30% of fish,
including shellfish, for human consumption in 1996.
At present aquaculture is probably the fastest growing food production
system in the world. FAO provides aquaculture production data from 1984 and
the increase in production since then to 1996, the latest year for which
data are published, shows close to exponential growth at about 10% a year.
Production from capture fisheries is essentially at its limit and is
unlikely to increase. It would be foolish to suggest that the exponential
growth pattern for aquaculture production can be maintained even into the
near future, but if it could, fish supplies from aquaculture would equal
those from capture fisheries by 2005. The current rate of increase is
greater than that of the growth in world population which means that fish
consumption, per person, is increasing.
Sheri draws attention to a table in the publication cited showing per caput
fish consumption by major world regions - Africa, N. America, and such
like. Detailed fish consumption data for individual countries are provided
in FAO's yearbooks of fisheries statistics. They are in Table I of the
Commodities volume, averaged over a 3 year period. The reference to the
latest issue is: Fishery Statistics 1996, Commodities, vol 83, FAO, Rome,
1998. Even more detailed data are provided in: Fish and Fishery Products.
World apparent consumption statistics based on food balance sheets
(1961-1993), FAO Fisheries Circular No. 821, Revision 3, FAO, Rome, 1996,
ISSN 0429-9329. These publications provide valuable information for anyone
interested in consumption of fish in countries of the world, and, for the
second citation, the contribution of fish to the supply of proteins in the
diet. They would be valuable source material for courses in nutrition, in
fish marketing, and in fish technology. I have used for them as the basis
for lectures and seminars.
All this might be of direct interest to nutritionists, but persons
interested in safety of fishery products, and its regulation, the topic of
this Listserve, should take note of these trends in production. About 70%
of aquaculture production comes from freshwater, and as a result of the
increased contribution of aquaculture to food fish supplies, the
contribution of freshwater fish has increased. Over the 20 year period
1976-1996, the contribution of freshwater fish to world supplies of fish
for human consumption has increased from 14% to 26%, and this proportion
will increase over the next few years. The broad categories of hazards -
microorganisms, parasites, and chemical contaminants - apply to freshwater
fish as they do to marine fish, but the detailed hazards, and their risks,
are not the same. For temperate climate countries, risks of food poisoning
from freshwater fish are very low, and lower than for marine fish as a
group - no ciguatera, no scombrotoxin, major causes of ill health from
consumption of vertebrate marine species fish - though risks to health from
consumption of freshwater fish in tropical countries are not low, and
greater than from marine fish.
Peter Howgate