Global profits from fishing could grow by tens of billions of dollars if depleted fish stocks were allowed to recover, bolstering the livelihoods of millions of people and feeding the world's growing population, a study by the World Bank said Tuesday.
Overfishing costs more than $80 billion a year in lost revenues because dwindling supplies require extra effort to find increasingly scarce fish, according to the study.
Millions of people depend on fish to survive, and fish will be vital to feed the world population, which is predicted to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050, the United Nations has said.