Overfishing is the single biggest threat to ocean life.
As the number, size, and power of fishing boats has grown, an increasing number of commercial fisheries are being fished to the point of collapse.
Destructive fishing practices, such as bottom trawling, are damaging and destroying sensitive marine habitats
And millions of nontarget fish and other ocean dwellers are incidentally caught and killed each day as bycatch.
This has pushed the largest living space on Earth to its limit – threatening not just marine habitats and species but also the livelihoods of coastal communities, human health and food security.
WWF's Smart Fishing Initiative particularly seeks to move four major, global
fishery types – whitefish, tuna, shrimp, and forage (or reduction) – towards long-term sustainability.
Work centres on:
- Reducing illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing
- Increasing public awareness and preferential purchasing of sustainable seafood in key markets
- Engaging the processing and retail sector to demand legal, traceable and sustainable seafood
- Addressing the key drivers of overfishing, including private and public finance
- Generating solutions that address the very real and difficult socio-economic issues underpinning and fuelling overfishing.
The work is underpinned by the WWF
Global Marine Programme and
Global Species Programme, and carried out in conjunction with other
Global Initatives –
Market Transformation,
Coral Triangle,
Arctic, and
Coastal East Africa – as well as the
Mediterranean,
European Policy, and other WWF offices and programmes around the world, and many valuable partners.
