Intensive and unsustainable fishing practices represent significant causes for the marine environment destruction. This includes illegal fishing methods, bottom trawling, and dynamite fishing, to exemplify. More than 55% of the ocean areas are currently exploited by industrial fishing. This happens mainly in coastal waters, where 90% of global fisheries take place. Equally, an additional 27 million tonnes of aquatic food will be required by 2030, considering the projected population growth.
[Mediterranean foodscape]: Conscious, critical, and ethical use of fishery products also depends on consumer food choices. It is up to the consumer to consider or not as responsible consumption to prioritize fish from their native region, as a way to enhance the local fishing activity and jobs.
Through their shopping, they can favour the conservation of ecosystems and the sustainability of resources and extractive activity.
[Nutrition for All]: 31.4% of fish stocks are either fished to capacity or overfished. To that, it is necessary to consider that 80% of marine pollution comes from land-based activities, especially as a result of inland or coastal runoffs. Currently, more than 700 emerging pollutants, their metabolites and transformation products, are listed as being present in the European aquatic environment.
[Waste & Circular Systems]: Each year, approximately 35 percent of global fish and seafood products are either lost or wasted, with a considerable proportion due to discarding at catch level. This number is unacceptably high, considering that fish stocks and their supporting ecosystems are overexploited and degraded worldwide due to poor governance, management, and fishing practices.
Participants will identify the main causes of marine overexploitation and pollution. Specific attention will be given to the concept of “fish waste,’ overfishing practices and by-catch products. But also good practices will be considered, such as alternatives to animal-based proteins, microbial proteins, and conservation practices, such as marine protected areas.