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Sustainable Fisheries

Sustainable Fisheries

A Global Approach to Addressing Food Security and Environmental Challenges

By: Sabrina Careri

Sustainable Fisheries

A Global Approach to Addressing Food Security and Environmental Challenges

What Canada Can Learn from the 2024 State of Fisheries Report?

As landfills reach capacity, the average person continues to produce over 5 pounds of waste a day. Meanwhile, progress on many of the global Sustainable Development Goals continues to be slow, with food security and waste production both growing global issues.

Especially in the context of aquatic food production, our global food system is unsustainable. Whether from plastic pollution, overfishing and overconsumption, or poor management and inefficiencies in production, our food waste continues to contribute to climate change and biodiversity loss, exacerbating food insecurity, and the depletion of our natural resources (which could instead be used to feed billions of people around the world).

Recent studies and policies have brought attention to the link between climate change, aquatic ecosystems, and food production. In 2024, FAO released a report that revealed the current State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture, highlighting the need for transformative change, and emphasizing the role of sustainable aquatic food systems in enhancing nutrition, mitigating the impacts of climate change, and improving food security on a global scale.

Food waste continues to be a substantial issue and addressing the shortfalls on the production side can improve availability and relieve some pressure on Earth’s natural resources, increasing equitable access across global scales. However, supportive policies, capacity-building, and technological innovations are needed to support sustainable growth.

In Canada especially, significant issues exist within Canadian fishers, as highlighted in the 2024 Oceans Canada Fisheries Audit. The report revealed that only 35% of Canada’s fish stocks are considered healthy. This past year, our nation continued to struggle with fish stocks declining, poor management, and overfishing, deteriorating our rich marine resources. In order to achieve sustainability and long-term resilience, and realize climate adaptation targets, urgency for robust science-based management integrated with traditional knowledge systems, is needed from all levels of government.

FAO’s Blue Transformative strategy aims to expand sustainable aquaculture, improve the management of fisheries and reduce the amount of waste. This strategy exemplifies how strengthening policies to rebuild depleted fish stocks and investing in better processing, can help develop responsible fish farming practices to reduce our environmental impact, and help fisheries prepare for ocean temperature changes as well as shifts in population. Addressing targets such as the sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems will help to align our nation’s aquatic food systems with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

What can you do? First and foremost, make your voice heard. At this time of political uncertainty, where divisions continue to hinder our environmental progress, we must advocate for decision makers and leaders who support policies that prioritize global unified approaches to addressing global challenges, such as sustainable food systems, biodiversity loss and climate change. Next, always shop with sustainability in mind. Buy only what you need, store food, especially fish, properly, and use all edible parts to minimize waste.

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