GENRES Informationssystem Genetische Ressourcen

Sea-water and freshwater fish, but also crustaceans, mussels and other seafood belong to the most important sources of protein for human consumption worldwide. As the basis of the fishing industry, they play, at the same time, a major role in socioeconomic terms. Particularly in developing countries local fishing and the related branches of production guarantee the income of a large part of coastal communities.

German sea fisheries (coastal and deep-sea fisheries), which is embedded in the common fisheries policy of the EU, holds about 5 % (2009) of the catch quota of species subject to quota within the EU.

Freshwater fisheries uses both wild stocks of lakes, reservoirs and rivers, and stocks in aquaculture that are, more or less, affected by breeding. While professional lake and river fishing has sharply decreased in Germany during the last century, recreational fishing, with currently more than 1.6 million anglers, is becoming increasingly more important.

Today the vast majority of fishing yield of freshwater fisheries no longer comes from the lake and river fisheries but from aquaculture. Aquaculture is the controlled breeding of fish, molluscs, crustaceans and other aquatic organisms.