The authors added that it was estimated that the level of overexploitation had increased slightly since 2006, but 15% of the stocks monitored by the FAO were either "underexploited" or "moderately exploited".

This meant that catches in these regions could increase in order to meet the demand for fish products.

Big business

The report also showed that fish continued to be the most-traded food commodity, worth US $102bn (£63bn) in 2008 - a nine percent increase on the previous 12 months.
China remained the largest fish-producing nation, producing 47.5m tonnes in 2008 (32.7m tonnes from aquaculture and 14.8m tonnes from capture fisheries).

Globally, the data showed capture fisheries produced about 90m tonnes, with 80m tonnes from marine waters and a record 10m tonnes from inland waters.