The alleged crisis in world fisheries is not reflected in production statistics. The total production of fish has increased continuously from 20 million tonnes in 1950 to 180 in 2012, while the catches in capture fisheries have stagnated at 90 million tonnes. Nevertheless, there have been some spectacular fisheries collapses.

With a growing world population, the need for increased food supply from fish is clear. It must come from aquaculture, which has expanded despite stagnating production of fish meal. It is argued that fish meal production is no threat to wild fish stocks, nor does it come at the expense of fewer fish available for direct human consumption.

Non-market valuation of fish as wildlife is criticized as having a built-in preservation bias. Ecosystem management makes sense for maximizing the yield from interdependent species, but is largely used as a code word for an environmentalist agenda.

JEL Codes: Q22, Q26, Q51, Q57.