Widespread fishing of baby fish is a scourge that contributes to reducing world-wide production of fish and fishery resources caught in the wild by an estimated 700,000 tonnes each year since the early 1990s. Fishing baby fish happens to a large extent as a result of shrimp fisheries. They take out up to 80% of so-called 'by-catch', dead and dieing juveniles of other valuable species, which happen to be in the way of the trawl. They have little or no commercial value at that size and are thrown overboard. This is a tremendous waste, because they will never grow to a size where they can reproduce themselves and keep their population healthy and productive. Any fishery with too small mesh sizes or hooks operating in areas with lots of baby fish is very destructive. It affects also the once rich fishing grounds in Northwest Africa. The FAO - EAF Nansen pilot activities implemented by Mundus maris aim at promoting an ecosystem approach to fisheries by introducing the key concepts of ecosystem integrity and protecting people's livelihoods already at an early age in schools in Senegal and Gambia. The fish ruler poster - here for Gambia - uses wide-spread soda cans as a measure to draw attention of the minimum size at which overfished species will have multiplied, thus ensuring the sustainability of the resource base. Read more.
