Purse seiners tuna fishing in the Mediterranean.That's the headline from a SeaWeb article. No wonder the fishing industry is called, "the most energy-intensive food production method in the world today."

According to the study the world's fishing fleets burned 50 billion litres of fuel in just one year at a cost of, "620 litres per live weight tonne of fish and shellfish landed". The study didn't even include freshwater fisheries or illegal, unreported or unregulated fisheries (what we call pirate fishing). So in reality their figures are probably a massive under estimate.

Ironically, climate change is one of the bigger threats to ocean ecosystems.

The researchers concluded much the same:

"Given the absolute and relative scale of fuel consumed by fishing fleets globally, it is essential that it be considered explicitly in future policy planning, both with regard to the fuel subsidies from which fishing fleets usually benefit, and the needless climate impact of fossil fuels burnt by overcapitalized fisheries."