GENEVA, Switzerland, July 27 (UPI) -- The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday Mediterranean Sea nations must work together to restore depleted fish stocks.
Catches in the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea are running around 1.5 million metric tons per year, well off the 2 million metric tons per year averaged during the 1982-1988 period.
"Generally, fish-catch per unit of fishing effort -- a measure often viewed as key indicator of the state of wild stocks -- is declining in the Mediterranean," said Alain Bonzon, head of the FAO-affiliated General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean.
The FAO's latest global assessment identified a number of Mediterranean stocks as overexploited -- including bluefin tuna, Atlantic bonito, hake, swordfish, whiting, striped mullet and sea bream.
Bonzon urged coastal nations to cooperate to save declining fish stocks.
