Rome - Global demand for fish is set to increase, but the industry and national authorities need to bolster efforts dealing with the impact of climate change, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Monday in a report.

"Climate change is already modifying the distribution of both marine and freshwater species," the Rome-based FAO said in its State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture report.

The fishing/aquaculture sector itself was making a "minor but significant" contribution to harmful greenhouse gas emissions through energy use for transport, processing and storing of fish.

For communities, especially those in developing nations who rely heavily on fisheries, either as food or as a means to generate income, "any decreases in the local availability of fish will pose serious problems," FAO warned.

Fish provides more than 2.9 billion people with at least 15 per cent of their average per capita animal protein intake, according to the report.

It contributes at least 50 per cent of total animal protein intake in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, French Guiana, Gambia, Ghana, Indonesia, Sierra Leone and many small island developing states, the report noted.

Almost 44 million people - 86 per cent of them in Asia - are estimated to be directly involved in capture fisheries and aquaculture, while around half a billion people depend on the sector for their livelihoods, it said.

Global demand for fish will continue to increase, in a manner consistent with the pattern of recent decades, FAO said.

In 2006, the world consumed 110.4 million tons of fish - 51.7 million tonnes from aquaculture, or breeding and hatching in captivity as opposed to catches in the wild.

During the same period world exports of fish and fishery products reached 85.9 billion dollars, with further strong growth in trade expected, FAO said.

Future growth will have to come from aquaculture "with a diminishing reliance on wild stocks as such reliance can undermine the health of these stocks," the report said.

Some 19 per cent of major commercial marine fish stocks monitored by FAO are "over-exploited" while eight per cent are "depleted" the report noted.

Areas with the highest proportions of fully-exploited stocks are the northeast Atlantic, the western Indian Ocean and the northwest Pacific, FAO said.

This situation was mainly caused by "a combination of too many boats and highly effective fishing technologies."

The world's motorized fishing fleet totals around 2.1 million vessels with some 23,000 of these classified as "industrialized" large tonnage vessels.

"The nationality of several thousand of these is unknown - this category having expanded in recent years in spite of global efforts to eliminate illegal fishing," FAO noted.

The report contained the following "key messages":

Aquaculture continues to be the fastest-growing animal food producing sector and, for the first time, is able to provide half of all fish consumed worldwide. Future developments should move towards hatchery-based aquaculture, cutting dependence on wild stocks.

Actions are urgently needed to mitigate the factors driving climate change, as well as to adopt adaptation measures aimed at countering the threats to food and livelihood provision.

The role of small-scale fishers must be enhanced in order to tap their full potential in society and improve their livelihoods. Integrated development initiatives should create or strengthen cross-linkages including, literacy, housing, social security, health and infrastructure.

The accident rate in the fishing industry remains unacceptably high. To address this issue, an international plan of action on safety at sea could be developed and promoted as part of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

The maximum potential from the world's oceans in terms of production from wild living marine resources has probably been reached, necessitating more closely controlled approaches to fisheries management in order to tackle the economic losses that currently characterize many capture fisheries and to reduce fishing capacity to levels commensurate with sustainable levels of harvesting.

Private standards and certification schemes should be reconciled with the public sector's task of regulating the use of responsible practices in fisheries and aquaculture throughout the food chain. (dpa)