So-called ‘Blue Bonds’ could play an important role in restoring ocean ecosystems and setting the world’s fisheries on a sustainable development course, according to a new study from financial think tank Planet Tracker. Production from the world’s wild-catch fisheries is set to decline, or at best plateau, over the next few decades. At the same time, global population growth means seafood production needs to increase by 118 percent by 2050 to meet healthy dietary requirements. To tackle this issue, ocean ecosystems need time to regenerate, having been hit by decades of overfishing and other human activities that caused the abundance of marine life to decline by an estimated 70 percent through the course of the 20th century. Planet Tracker’s new analysis argues that in the long-term, stripping back catch levels to allow marine ecosystems to regenerate would benefit the world’s fishing industry. Drawing on a model examining the feasibility of a global recovery of fish stocks, it finds that while a business-as-usual scenario results in higher profits and cash flow in the short term, financial returns quickly fall below those envisaged under a ‘recovery scenario’ by the sixth year.

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