Humanity now farms more aquatic animals than it catches from the wild, according to new report
Freshly harvested catla arranged in a row in a fish market for sale. Photo: iStock
Catla (Labeo catla) was one of the top 10 species of aquatic animals harvested by humans in 2022, according to a new report released by the United Nations on June 7, 2024.
With over four million tonnes harvested in 2022, catla is eighth on the list of ‘Top ten species items’, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024 noted.
The species is “endemic to the riverine system in northern India, Indus plain and adjoining hills of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar, and has been introduced later into almost all riverine systems, reservoirs and tanks all over India”, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which has brought out the report.
Catla used to be traditionally farmed in the ponds of eastern Indian states from where it spread across the country during the second half of the 20th century.
Catla as well as two other important Indian carps – Rohu (Labeo rohita), and Mrigal (Cirrhinus mrigala) – are three of the most farmed fish in India’s inland fisheries.
Whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei), with 6.8 million tonnes, was the top aquatic animal species produced in 2022.
It was followed by:
1. Cupped oysters nei (Crassostrea spp., 6.2 million tonnes);
2. Grass carp (also known white amur; Ctenopharyngodon idellus, 6.2 million tonnes);
3. Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus, 5.3 million tonnes);
4. Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, 5.1 million tonnes)
5. Anchoveta (also known as Peruvian anchovy; Engraulis ringens, 4.9 million tonnes).
The last was followed by Japanese carpet shell and catla, which in turn, was followed by the common carp and the Alaska or Walleye pollock.
The report noted that the number of species harvested has varied greatly over the years, with major differences from region to region.
Until the late 1970s, finfish or true fishes (different from other aquatic animals such as molluscs or crustaceans) represented about 90 per cent of the total production of aquatic animals, compared with 75 per cent in 2022.
The decline has been attributed to the rise in aquaculture. Indeed, humans now farm more aquatic life than capture them from the wild, according to the report.
“In 2022, production of animal species from aquaculture (51 per cent) surpassed for the first time that from capture fisheries, with inland aquaculture producing 62.6 per cent of total farmed aquatic animals,” the document noted.
The increase in aquaculture production has caused a rise in the shares of molluscs and crustaceans.
Half of the 75 per cent finfish harvested in 2022 were marine species while 44 per cent were freshwater ones. Marine finfish also constituted 38 per cent of the total aquatic animals produced and were followed by freshwater fishes at 33 per cent.
“Carps, barbels and other cyprinids represented the main group of species produced in 2022, with a share of 18 per cent of the production of aquatic animals, followed by miscellaneous freshwater species (11 per cent) and Clupeiformes such as herrings, sardines and anchovies (10 per cent),” the analysis noted.
“It is worthy of note that aquaculture was the main source of production of the top five species and of eight of the top ten species of aquatic animals in 2022,” it added.
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