Due to population growth and changing diets, demand for aquatic food has surged. A switch in diet - known as a "nutrition transition" - tends to occur as Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs) evolve into Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs). This transition generally involves increased consumption of meat, fish, and dairy products. It's like when you move from eating mainly rice and beans to including sushi, grilled salmon, and cheese in your meals.

Here's a fun fact: between 1961 and 2016, the average yearly increase in global food fish consumption (3.2%) outpaced population growth (1.6%). Yes, we've been eating fish faster than we've been making people! Plus, the increase in fish consumption even exceeded that of all terrestrial animal meats combined (2.8%). To put it simply, if fish were a company, its stock would be skyrocketing! From 1951 to 2015, fish consumption swelled from an average of around 6.0 kg per person to over 20 kg per person. We could compare this trend to something like the rise of smartphones - just as nearly everyone has a phone now, fish has become a much more common part of people's diets.

Of all fish produced in 2016 (171 million tonnes), about 88% was used for direct human consumption. The remaining 12% (approximately 20 million tonnes) was used for non-food purposes, primarily fishmeal and fish oil. It's kind of like how we use corn - we eat some as sweet corn, but we also turn a lot of it into corn syrup for food processing, or even ethanol for fuel.