|
 Fish
do some pretty amazing things to stay alive and prosper. Take
Atlantic bluefin tuna, for example. It can grow up to 10 feet in
length, and weigh over 1,500 pounds. For humans, that would be a
pretty good excuse to sit around and not do much. Yet this tuna has
been known to cross the Atlantic Ocean in just over a month and swim
at speeds comparable to some racehorses.
Salmon are also
unique. They have a remarkable ability to find their way home when
it is time for them to reproduce. In fact, they’ll battle strong
currents and waterfalls to reach the exact place where they hatched.
Fish work hard, and we need to work hard to
make sure they’re around in the future.
Today is World Fisheries Day. Did you
know that around 80 million tonnes of fish and seafood are caught
globally each year? Ocean catches represent close to three quarters
of this amount. It’s quite an industry when you think about it.
Fisheries make major contributions to fishing nations’ economies,
employing millions of people worldwide and feeding millions more.
Remember that bluefin tuna we talked about earlier? In Japan, a
single fish can fetch as much as US$173,000. Not bad for one fish.
Unfortunately, there’s a downside to all this.
By now, you’ve probably seen or heard one of many reports warning
that if we don’t change the way global fish stocks are managed,
fisheries around the world could face collapse.
We can change this. We all have to play our
part in the solutions. We need to get better rules in place, find
the will to enforce the rules and we need to do it NOW.
Canada’s involved – so are many others. But
more need to join us. Overfishing and other illegal fishing
activities must come to an end.
World Fisheries Day is a wake-up call,
imploring us to ensure fisheries are here tomorrow, so they can
continue to sustain a way of life and provide a nutritional source
of protein to us all.
Minister's Statement
Backgrounder
|
