The “Global Fishing Industry” explores the critical balance between utilizing our oceans for food and protecting marine ecosystems. It examines how global fishing practices, from small local operations to large-scale industrial ventures, impact food security while also contributing to overfishing. Understanding these impacts is crucial, especially given that unchecked fishing practices could lead to irreversible ecological damage and long-term food shortages.
The book traces the evolution of fishing technologies, highlighting the rise of industrial fishing and the growing demand for seafood. It delves into how practices like bottom trawling, bycatch, and habitat destruction affect marine biodiversity, even leading to fisheries collapses.
A key focus is on sustainable solutions like marine protected areas and catch quotas, analyzing their social, economic, and political effects.
This book progresses systematically, beginning with an overview of the industry's scale and economic significance, then moves into ecological consequences, and concludes with conservation strategies. It emphasizes the need for a transition to sustainable fishing practices guided by scientific data and international cooperation, offering a balanced perspective suitable for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and anyone interested in marine conservation.