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MANAGING FISHERIES AND THE ROLE OF CITES

Introduction

A perennial issue facing mankind is how to best utilize the world’s natural resources. With aquatic foods providing essential nutrition for three billion people, and half of the animal protein and minerals for an estimated 400 million people, it is clearly vital that we succeed in conserving marine species at reasonable levels.

At the same time, for many people fisheries is about more than even food. Over 500 million people depend – directly or indirectly – on fisheries and aquaculture for their economic well-being.

We also need to carefully consider important environmental factors such as the state of oceans and waterways. All of this makes fisheries an enormously complex issue. So how should fisheries be organized?

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