Fishers by region and top ten fish exporting nations in 2000

The bar chart illustrates the number of fishers in five global regions across three decades, while the table lists the ten leading fish-exporting countries in 2000.

Overall, Asia experienced a dramatic surge in the number of fishers, far outpacing all other regions. Conversely, the other four regions showed relatively stable or minor fluctuations in their fisher populations over the twenty-year period.

In 1980, Asia had 9 million fishers, a figure that climbed to 13 million by 1990 and reached 22.5 million by 2000. In contrast, Africa’s fisher population grew from 1.8 million in 1980 to 2.4 million in 1990, remaining constant thereafter. South America and North America followed similar trends, both starting at 1.8 million and 1 million respectively in 1980, before stabilising at 1.9 million and 1.8 million by 2000. Europe was the only region to see a decline, dropping from 1 million in 1980 to 0.5 million in 1990, before recovering to 1 million in 2000.

The table highlights that in 2000, Thailand held the top position as the world's leading fish exporter, followed by Norway and the USA. China, Denmark, and Canada occupied the middle ranks, while Taiwan, Russia, Indonesia, and South Korea completed the top ten list.