Millions missing out on vital nutrients due to overfishing

News provided by

Jun 08, 2023, 07:45 ET

WASHINGTON, June 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- New analysis from the global non-profit Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) show that eliminating overfishing could provide nutrition for millions of additional people and help to prevent serious and life-threatening health conditions. Seafood is one of the most nutrient rich foods, packed with vitamins, and already provides a fifth of the daily protein needs of over 3 billion people globally¹.

Coral Reef at Marsa Gozlani site, Sharm el Shekh, Egypt. Credit: Renata Romeo / Ocean Image Bank

Latest estimates suggest if all global fisheries were managed sustainably, 16 million more tons of seafood could be harvested every year². This additional catch together with the 96 million tons of wild seafood catch currently projected for 2030³ could prevent iron deficiencies in 4 million people and vitamin B₁₂deficiencies in 18 million people⁴. This could help alleviate anemia, a global public health problem that affects nearly half of young children under five and 40% of pregnant women globally⁵.

The increased total catch could also help eliminate zinc and calcium deficiencies in more than two and a half million and 24 million people respectively while increasing vitamin A intakes for five million people[6]. Deficiency in vitamin A alone is the leading cause of preventable blindness in children⁷.

MSC's analysis found that 38 million people missing out on healthy levels of essential Omega-3 fatty acids (DHA and EPA)⁸, which are mainly found in seafood⁹, could also have their daily requirements met if the oceans are fished sustainably, helping to reduce deaths from heart disease and strokes¹⁰. Almost 90% of Americans do not meet the recommended intake of seafood per week, as set in the US Dietary Guidelines for Americans¹¹.

The estimates are derived from the Aquatic Foods Composition Database¹², a product of the Golden Lab at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, and presents the most comprehensive global database of more than three and a half thousand aquatic food species and hundreds of nutrients, created to increase the understanding of the nutritional benefits of aquatic foods.

Recent studies¹³ have also shown that nutrients from seafood are better absorbed and utilized by the body than nutrients in vegetables and food supplements. However, the challenges facing the ocean are also immense, with over a third of global fish stocks exploited at an unsustainable level¹⁴.

"By 2030, the world population is projected to reach 8.5 billion – that's half a billion more people than we currently have, and half a billion more people who need to eat, putting even more pressure on the earth," said Nicole Condon, Marine Stewardship Council US Program Director. "Catastrophic climate impacts and overfishing are threatening ocean health making managing our wild seafood sources sustainably more important than ever. We must collectively put aquatic foods at the heart of national food strategies to ensure that sustainable fisheries are recognized and supported, as well as help improve access to nutrition-rich seafood. The ocean plays such an important role in feeding the future."

This analysis, included in a new briefing on the importance of wild caught seafood in sustaining a growing global population, is being released by the MSC to mark the UN's 15th World Oceans Day on Thursday, June 8 2023.

About the MSC
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a global, science-based nonprofit organization helping to protect the ocean and safeguard seafood supplies for the future. For over 25 years, the MSC has been working with scientists, fisheries, seafood companies, industry experts, retailers, conservation groups, and other nonprofits to improve the way our ocean is fished through the MSC Fisheries Standard and Chain of Custody Standard. The MSC program incentivizes and rewards sustainable fishing practices globally. Through the use of the MSC blue fish label, the MSC makes it easy for everyone to identify and choose sustainable, wild-caught seafood from a certified source. Learn more at www.msc.org.

¹ UN State of the World's fisheries (Sofia 2020)
²Costello et al (2016): Global fishery prospects under contrasting management regimes, 16 million more tons of catch could be harvested, while Ye et al (2012) found a similar figure of 16.5 million more tons of catch could be harvested if fisheries were better managed.
³ The potential combined catch includes 96 million tons of wild caught catch for 2030 from SOFIA 2020 added to 16 million tons from Costello et al, see ref 2.
⁴ The nutritional values were calculated based on data on seafood production from wild capture fisheries from the report, with data from the Aquatic Foods Composition Database, and a hypothetical increase of 16 million tons for wild capture fisheries applied if all fishing was sustainable (Costello, et al 2016).The potential combined catch includes 96 million tons projected wild caught catch for 2030 from SOFIA 2020 added to 16 million tons. The deficiencies that this combined total (112 million tons) of wild caught seafood hypothetically could eliminate are: 4 million for iron, 2.7 million for zinc, 24.6 million for calcium, 18 million for vitamin B12, and 38.4 million for DHA+EPA, while increasing the intake of 5 million for vitamin A. This assumes that this wild capture seafood is destined for populations who are nutritionally vulnerable. The figures are based on a division of the nutrient deficiencies from the report Aquatic foods to nourish nations. Nature 598, 315–320 (2021) by wild capture and aquaculture from SOFIA 2020. The figures do not take into account trade disaggregations which would provide a breakdown revealing where aquaculture and wild capture flows relate to existing food system formulations, which is currently being analyzed by Jessica Gephart of American University (see here for more details)
⁵ According to the World Health Organization.
⁶ See ref 4.
⁷ According to the World Health Organization.
⁸ See ref 4.
⁹ Sustainable optimization of global aquatic omega-3 supply chain could substantially narrow the nutrient gap, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, June 2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106260
¹⁰ Numerous large scale research studies have proven that omega-3 oils from seafood and fish oils prevent cardiovascular disease, heart attacks and strokes
¹¹ Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2022-2025
¹² The Aquatic Foods Composition Database was developed by the researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health alongside researchers from other universities for their report Aquatic foods to nourish nations. Nature 598, 315–320 (2021)
¹³ Bogard J R, Thilsted S H, Marks G C, Wahab M A, Hossain M A R, Jakobsen J and Stangoulis J 2015 Nutrient composition of important fish species in Bangladesh and potential contribution to recommended nutrient intakes J. Food Compos. Anal. 42 120–33, and Thilsted S H, Thorne-Lyman A, Webb P, Bogard J R, Subasinghe R, Phillips M J and Allison E H 2016 Sustaining healthy diets: the role of capture fisheries and aquaculture for improving nutrition in the post-2015 era Food Policy 61 126–31
http://www.fao.org/publications/sofia/2020/en/
¹⁴ http://www.fao.org/publications/sofia/2020/en/