Description: Large economic losses have plagued the global fisheries sector for more than a decade. However, national governments have traditionally heavily subsidised the fishing industry, since it is an important source of employment, food and export earnings. Such subsidies have often been used with little consideration for their long-term damage to natural resources. Global subsidies, which reach about US$ 13 billion per year, encourage fishermen to remain in a depleted fishery even though it may no longer be profitable, thus further depleting marine resources. About 50 million people (including 35 million fishermen) worldwide depend directly on fishing for their living. According to the FAO, reducing the large - and medium - scale fishing industry by half might eliminate several hundreds of thousands of jobs. Reducing the small-scale, artisan-fishing sector by half would eliminate several million jobs.
Published in: "Overfishing, a Major Threat to the Global Marine Ecology", Aug. 2004
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