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Yvonne Sadovy and Claudio Campagna, IUCN SSC Marine
Conservation Sub-Committee
Healthy marine ecosystems play a crucial role in and
contribute to sustainable development through their
provision of food, livelihoods, income, contribution to
national security and their cultural, traditional and aesthetic
associations and linkages. From an economic and social
perspective, seafood supports hundreds of millions
of people across the planet either directly as food and
for domestic and international trade, or indirectly from
associated livelihoods that range from boat building to fish
processing and mariculture (fish farming).
Seafood is the most extensively traded food commodity
globally, is a critically important global source of high quality
protein for humans as well as for animal feed, and is vital
for many developing countries. Fishing is often an activity of
last resort in times of social and economic hardship. Healthy
seas are also critically important for international security
with regional and international conflicts often associated
with increased competition for limited fishery stocks. While
mariculture significantly increases seafood supply, it too
depends heavily on healthy marine ecosystems whether
for clean water, feed for cultured fishes and invertebrates
or for the genetic diversity essential for sustaining viable
mariculture operations. Marine ecosystems are major
producers of pharmaceutical products found in no other
ecosystem, massively support tourism and are most
productive when they are at their healthiest. Intact coastal
ecosystems contribute immeasurably from their protective
physical role through the physical presence of healthy reefs
as barriers against storms, erosion and extreme weather
events. The seas are sources of inspiration, unrivalled in
their generation of biological diversity and beauty. Yet,
notwithstanding that fishing is one of the last examples
of huge exploitation of wildlife that still occurs there
remains much to discover about marine biodiversity, the
many species that make up marine ecosystems, and their
interrelationships with each other and with man.
istock photos