Feeding the growing world population is one of the most burning issues of the future. Global population growth is challenging the food industry in an unprecedented way.

While on the one hand the yields of e.g. agriculture are negatively affected by climate change or the oceans are overfished, on the other hand the world’s hunger increases with every human being born.

According to forecasts, global food production will have to increase by 50 percent by 2030 to meet the world’s hunger needs

Rising prosperity and global income growth continue to increase the demand for high-quality food – for example fish.

The fish and its characteristics already make it an integral part of the diet of people from different cultures.

Intensive fishing with consequences: Overfished oceans!

Europe leads the way in the hunger for fish: according to the WWF, the EU is the international record holder for overfishing.

In the European region, 88 percent of fish stocks are overfished. Particularly in the European Union, which often claims sustainability for itself at the political level, the oceans are under greater strain than anywhere else in the world.

Part of this sad balance is also the fact that about 40 percent of the fish catches are thrown into the waste as so-called useless “by-catch”. In the North Sea, about one million tons of it are thrown back into the sea every year, dying or already dead.

Who loves nature, leaves it alone

Of course, the idea of saving the world’s oceans by completely abandoning consumption is obvious. But before that day comes, there will be no more fish that can be saved.

Time is pressing – The world’s fish stocks are in danger

The amount of fish caught has multiplied in recent decades thanks to new fishing techniques.

Some fish species are on the verge of extinction: the population of predatory and edible fish such as shark, tuna and swordfish alone has already declined by 90 percent.

Just the old fish, which are necessary for reproduction and continuance, are those which are missing

They no longer produce offspring because they end up on our plates.

More than half of the world’s fish stocks are considered to be fished to their limits. Around 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks are on the verge of extinction.

Can new technologies save the fish population in the sea?

Yes! They can do it the long way around! Innovative science does not stop at fish farming. Therefore, the fisherman of tomorrow will no longer go out to sea, but will digitally accompany his fish farming.

Fish shoals in sail-driven or motorised cages

Revolution in traditional fish farming and fishing: deep sea aquaculture!

Using intelligent cameras and object tracking algorithms, the floating cages, which drift through the sea, are accompanied.

From pioneer of extinction to pioneer of marine regeneration – opportunities for Europe

Given that the situation is even more dramatic in European fishing areas and that 93% of stocks in the Mediterranean are considered to be overfished, I believe that digital fishing techniques should be subsidised, with a simultaneous obligation for digital fishermen to release part of the cage to freedom.

In this way, European subsidies could be used directly for the regeneration of fish stocks

European taxpayers’ money could thus reverse the process. Instead of “by-catch” being dumped as “waste” in the sea with every catch of fish, the fish stock of the seas would recover with every catch of fish with the release of old fish capable of reproduction.