Advocate

In hot water: What happens when the last Fish dies?

When we think of Fish, the first thing that comes to mind is food. In 2016, the Philippine Statistics Authority said that next to rice, the second staple food for Filipinos is Fish. And that on average, a Filipino consumes about 98.6 grams of Fish and Fish products daily. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Global Fish production is estimated to have reached about 179 million tonnes in 2018. 156 million tonnes ended up on our plates.”

To put that in perspective, 179 million tons is equivalent to the weight of the Eiffel tower every 29 minutes. One need not be a rocket scientist to understand that this is unsustainable.

By now, a lot of us are already aware of overfishing, not to mention other human activities that pose a threat to the oceans (more on that later). In a steadily growing human population where demand is only expected to rise, we are steering ourselves closer and closer to dangerous waters.