On a world-wide scale, approximately one billion people are dependent on fish as the principal source of animal protein. Since the 1960s, the availability of fish and fish by-products per inhabitant has practically doubled (with an average consumption of 16 kg of fish per person per year at the end of the 1990s), rapidly gaining on demographic growth, which also nearly doubled over the same period. In low-income food-deficit countries where the current consumption of sea products is close to half of that of the richest countries, the contribution of fish to total protein in-take is considerable, neighboring 20%. In certain insular or coastal countries of high population density, fish protein is a deciding dietary contributor, providing at least 50% of total protein intake (Bangladesh, North Korea, Ghana, Guinea, Indonesia, Japan, Senegal, etc.).