Daniel Pauly: Large-Scale and Small-Scale Fisheries | FP

The latest Foreign Policy magazine includes a set of info graphics by Daniel Pauly on the state of the world's fisheries, and Tom Philpott of Grist provides a great summary.

Large-scale fisheries burn through 14-19 million metric tons of fuel each year to produce 29 million metric tons of fish. So in the best case, it takes about a ton of fuel to produce two tons of fish. Their small-scale counterparts use one to three metric tons of fuel to produce 24 million metric tons of fish. So in the worst case, a ton of fuel yields eight tons of fish. What happened to economies of scale?

It gets worse. For large-scale operations, more than two-thirds of the catch (22 of 29 metric tons) goes to industrial purposes, i.e., producing fish meal and fish oil to feed fish farms. ... For small-scale operations, "almost none" of the catch goes to industrial purposes. These fisher people are harvesting food for people to eat. Their large-scale rivals, like corn and soy farmers, are creating industrial inputs.

Then there's the "bycatch" problem. ... Every year, large fisheries throw back 10-20 million metric tons of dead sea creatures. Small fisheries throw back "few" such critters, by contrast.

Finally, there's employment. As global unemployment rises, large fisheries employ just 1 million people. Small operations provide livelihoods (and access to top-quality fresh food) to more than 12 million.