Seafood
is any sea animal or seaweed that is served as food or is
suitable for eating. This usually includes seawater animals,
such as fish and shellfish (including mollusks and crustaceans).
By extension, in North America although not generally in the
United Kingdom, the term seafood is also applied to similar
animals from fresh water and all edible aquatic animals are
collectively referred to as seafood.
Edible seaweeds are rarely considered
seafood, even though they come from seawater and are widely
eaten around the world. See the category of sea vegetables.
The harvesting of seafood is
known as fishing and the cultivation of seafood is known as
aquaculture, mariculture, or simply fish farming.
Seafood is a source of protein
in many diets around the world.
Predicted collapse :-
Research into population trends
of various species of seafood is pointing to a global collapse
of seafood species by 2048. Such a collapse would occur due
to pollution and overfishing, threatening oceanic ecosystems,
according to some researchers.
A major international scientific
study released in November 2006 in the journal Science found
that about one-third of all fishing stocks worldwide have
collapsed (with a collapse being defined as a decline to less
than 10% of their maximum observed abundance), and that if
current trends continue all fish stocks worldwide will collapse
within fifty years.
The FAO State of World Fisheries
and Aquaculture 2004 report estimates that in 2003, of the
main fish stocks or groups of resources for which assessment
information is available, "approximately one-quarter
were overexploited, depleted or recovering from depletion
(16%, 7% and 1% respectively) and needed rebuilding."
Organizations such as
the National Fisheries Institute, however, disagree with such
findings and assert that currently observed declines in fish
population are due to natural fluctuations and that enhanced
technologies will eventually alleviate whatever impact humanity
is having on oceanic life. |
