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Correspondence

Nature 450, 945 (13 December 2007) | doi:10.1038/450945a; Published online 12 December 2007

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All fishing nations must unite to cut subsidies

U. Rashid Sumaila1 & Daniel Pauly2

  1. Fisheries Economics Research Unit, Fisheries Centre, The University of British Columbia, AERL Building, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada
  2. Fisheries Centre, The University of British Columbia, AERL Building, 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada

The threat of overfishing to world fisheries is well documented, but not enough attention has been paid to government subsidies as an important factor in their decline. Subsidies, or government payments to the fishing sector, estimated at US$30–34 billion a year, are key drivers of the unsustainable exploitation of the world's depleted fish populations.