Global fish stocks cannot keep up with the rapid rise in consumption, putting pressure on wild fish stocks and suggesting that aquaculture will play an ever increasing role in attempting to fill that gap.

That is the word from a new UN report on the topic. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) report says people around the world are eating more fish, with global per capita consumption in 2014 reaching 44 pounds a year for the first time. Record consumption, which appears to have continued in 2015, is the result of increased supplies from fish farming, growing demand linked to an increase in population, rising incomes and urbanization, and a slight improvement in some fish stocks.

The report, titled The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016, says worldwide per capita fish consumption increased from an average of 22 pounds in the 1960s to 44 pounds in 2014 — and aquaculture now provides half of all fish for human consumption. Chin