The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has called for investment in fisheries with the aim of culling the huge excess of fishing vessels operating throughout the globe.
In a press release titled "Fisheries reform would benefit global economy" the UNEP has said:
Global investment of US $8 billion per year to rebuild the world’s fisheries could result in benefits to the global economy of $1.7 trillion over the next 40 years.
The annual investment would be used to reduce excess capacity in the world’s fishing fleets, train fishers in alternative livelihoods, set up tradable quota management systems, and designate and manage marine protected areas. “The lives and livelihoods of over half a billion people, linked with the health of this industry, will depend on the tough but also transformational choices governments make now and over the years to come,” said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. “The scenarios recognize that millions of fishers will need support in retraining and that fishing fleets must shrink. But this needs to be set against a rise in catches, an overall climb in incomes for coastal communities and companies, and improvements in the health of the marine environment and ultimately hundreds of millions of people whose incomes and livelihoods are linked to fishing.”
A UNEP press release on the preview report is at
http://bit.ly/9UWmQC