In a programme co-organised by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and FAO, the promotion of non-entangling and ocean-friendly fish aggregating devices (FAD), which are floating devices that are used to lure fishes, has helped to greatly reduce levels of bycatch.About 38.5 million tonnes of bycatch results from the practice each year.Another problem related to overfishing is bycatch, whereby large amounts of unwanted sea animals are captured during the fishing for a particular species and then are discarded as waste, causing the unnecessary loss of billions of fish and sea creatures.Illegal and unregulated fishing represents 12-28% of fishing worldwide- around 11-26 million tonnes of fish.Over the past 40 years, marine species have seen a decrease of 39%.The percentage of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels in 2017 was 65.8%, far lower than that of 1990’s 90%.As part of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 14), the UN and FAO are working towards maintaining the proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels.Between 19, the average annual increase in global food fish consumption (3.2%) outpaced population growth (1.6%).In the run-up to World Oceans Day on June 8, here are 15 facts about overfishing. Not only does overfishing pose threats to the marine ecosystems, it also affects many people directly – especially those who greatly rely on fishing to make a living. According to the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations (FAO), “In 2018, the total global capture by fisheries reached the highest level ever recorded at 96.4 million tonnes,” an increase of 5.4% from the average between 2014-2017. Overfishing is when fish are caught faster than their stocks can be replenished, leading to an overall depletion of fish populations that may result in their collapse.