by a vast ocean. Over 70% of the Earth’s surface in fact. The ocean’s great biodiversity is unmatched and it contains over 80% of all life on Earth, mostly unexplored. Millions of people worldwide depend on the oceans for their daily livelihoods. More and more this is endangered because of ignorance and a global dearth of management. Fishing is central to the livelihood of 200 million people, mostly those in the developing world, and one in five people in the world depends on fish as their primary source of protein. But amid facts about aquaculture’s rising worldwide production rates, other, more sobering, figures reveal that global marine fish stocks are in jeopardy; from increasing pressure by overfishing and environmental degradation and pollution.
an empty net
our planet is covered mostly
an empty net overfishing in the world’s oceans compiled and designed by Emily Dubin
an empty net overfishing in the world’s oceans compiled and designed by Emily Dubin
an empty net: overfishing in the world’s oceans, design ©2009 by emily dubin
Published by Emily Dubin for Academy of Art University course GR.434, Typography 4, taught by Carolina de Bartolo in Fall 2009, San Francisco, ca. Bound at The Key Bindery, Oakland, ca. Text Stock: Classic Crest Avon Brilliant White Smooth, 80 Lb., Cover Stock: Cougar Brilliant White, 65 lb. cover, Typefaces: Mrs Eaves and Orator Medium, Printer: Epson Stylus 1400, Software: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign cs3. All rights reserved.
conte n t s
01 // a fish story
.10
02 // the water world
.16
03 // defining a problem
.22
04 // shifting scales
.28
technological advances
.31
collapse aftermath
.37
currents of change
.39
05 // present current
.46
total capture fisheries production
.57
inland capture production
.59
world aquaculture production
.64
status of the fishing fleet
.65
status of fishery resources
.69
inland fisheries
.77
fish consumption
.78
governance and policy
.81
bycatch and discards
.86
trade and fisheries subsidies
.87
06 // future of fish steps for the future // index
.92 .96 .104
01
a fish story over three quarters of our planet is covered by oceans. their biodiversity is
unmatched and they contain over 80 percent of all life on earth, mostly unexplored. Millions of people worldwide depend on the oceans for their daily livelihoods. More and more all this is endangered because of ignorance and a global lack of management. Fishing is central to the livelihood and food security of 200 million people, especially in the developing world, while one of five people on this planet depends on fish as the primary source of protein. According to un agencies, aquaculture–the farming and stocking of aquatic organisms including fish, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants–is growing more rapidly than all other animal food producing sectors. But amid facts and figures about aquaculture’s soaring worldwide production rates, other, more sobering, statistics reveal that global main marine fish stocks are in jeopardy, increasingly pressured by overfishing and environmental degradation. the magnitude of the problem of overfishing is often overlooked, given the competing claims of deforestation, desertification, energy resource exploitation and other biodiversity depletion dilemmas. The rapid growth in demand for fish and fish products is leading to fish prices increasing faster than prices of meat. As a result, fisheries investments have become more attractive to both entrepreneurs and governments, much to the detriment of small-scale fishing and fishing communities all over the world. In the last decade, in the north Atlantic region, commercial fish populations of cod, hake, haddock and flounder have fallen by as much as 95%, prompting calls for urgent measures. Some are even recommending zero catches to allow for regeneration of stocks, much to the ire of the fishing industry. in 1994, seafood may have peaked. According to an analysis of 64 large marine ecosystems, which provide 83 percent of the world’s seafood catch, global fishing yields have declined by 10.6 million metric tons since that year.
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And if that trend is not reversed, total collapse of all world fisheries should hit around 2048. Marine biologist Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, gathered a team of 14 ecologists and economists, to analyze global trends in fisheries. In addition to data from the u.n. Food and Agriculture Organization stretching back to 1950, the researchers examined 32 controlled experiments in various marine ecosystems, observations from 48 marine protected areas, and historical data on 12 coastal fisheries for the last 1,000 years. The latter study shows that among commercially important species alone, 91 percent have seen their abundance halved, 38 percent have nearly disappeared and 7 percent have gone extinct with most of this reduction happening since 1800. according to a food and agriculture organization (fao) estimate, over 70% of the world’s fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. The dramatic increase of destructive fishing techniques worldwide destroys marine mammals and entire ecosystems. fao reports that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing worldwide appears to be increasing as fishermen seek to avoid stricter rules in many places in response to shrinking catches and declining fish stocks. Few, if any, developing countries and only a limited number of developed ones are on track to put into effect by this year the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. Despite that fact that each region has its Regional Sea Conventions, and some 108 governments and the European Commission have adopted the unep Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land based Activities, oceans are cleared at twice the rate of forests. In just the last fifty to a hundred years, the brief span of a single human lifetime, people have spent much of the wealth of oceans, although the effects of overexploitation can be traced back much further in time. today’s generations have grown up surrounded by the seeming normality of coasts and seabed scarred by the rake of thousands of passes of the bottom trawl, and emptied of much of their riches. Few people really appreciate how far the oceans have been altered from their preexploitation state, even among professionals like fishery biologists or conservationists. A collective amnesia surrounds changes that happened more than a few decades ago, as hardly anyone reads old books or reports. People also place most trust in what they have seen for themselves, which often leads them to dismiss as far-fetched tales of giant fish or seas bursting with life from the distant, or even the recent, past. The worst part of these “shifting environmental baselines” is that we come to accept the degraded condition of the sea as normal. Those charged with looking after the oceans set themselves unambitious management targets that simply attempt to arrest declines, rather than rebuild to the richer and more productive states that existed in the past. If we are to break out of this spiral of diminishing returns and diminished expectations of the sea, then it is vital that we gain a clearer picture of how things have changed and what has been lost. This book is not a requiem for the sea. As I describe in these pages, we still have time to reinvent the way we manage fisheries and protect life in the oceans. I am optimistic for the future. The creation of national and international networks of marine protected areas, together with some simple reforms in the way we fish, could reverse this run of misfortune. It will take concerted public pressure and political will to change attitudes that have become entrenched over hundreds of years. But if today’s generations do not grasp this opportunity,tomorrow’s may not get the chance because many of
chapter 01 // a fish story
the species now in decline will have gone extinct. We cannot return the oceans to some primordial condition absent of human influence. But it is in everyone’s interest to recover some of the lost abundance of creatures in the sea. Fishers, se food lovers, snorkelers, and scuba divers are obviously high on the list of beneficiaries, but everybody has a stake in healthy oceans. for generations, people have admired the denizens of the sea for their size, ferocity, strength, or beauty. But we are slowly realizing that marine animals and plants are not merely embellishments to be wondered at. They are essential to the health of the oceans and the well-being of human society. Diverse and intact marine ecosystems are more productive, healthier, and more resilient than degraded ones. Overfishing is an important contributor to many of the adverse changes that have happened to oceans and coasts in recent times—dead zones, toxic algal blooms, flesh-eating microbes, beaches covered with slime and je lyfish explosions, to name a few Today, we are paying the price for over a hundred years of negligence in ocean conservation. We need to restore the abundance of sea life and give marine ecosystems a chance to repair themselves if the planet is to remain healthy.
013
according to an fao estimate, over 70% of the world’s fish species are either fully exploited or depleted.
02
the water world the ocean’s biological diversity—the living resources that compose it and
the ecological processes that sustain it—forms a foundation for the quality of human life as well as the raw materials to enrich it. Biological diversity, or biodiversity, refers to the variety and variability among living organisms, and among the ecological complexes of which they are a part. Marine living resources provide essential economic, environmental, aesthetic, and cultural benefits to humanity. Sixteen percent of all animal protein consumed worldwide comes from the ocean. life originated in the sea and is much older in the sea than on land. As a consequence, animal and plant diversity at higher taxonomic levels are much greater in the sea where there are 14 endemic (unique) animal phyla whereas only 1 phylum is endemic to land. For plants the situation seems to be different—almost all algal groups have representatives in both fresh and marine waters and higher plants are nearly exclusively terrestrial. There is also a remarkable diversity of life-history strategies in marine organisms. The sum total of genetic resources and physiological diversity in the sea is therefore expected to be much more diverse than on land. the main marine primary producers are very small and often mobile. In the oceans cyanobacteria are the main primary producers: species from the genera Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus, about 1-2 μm in diameter, are responsible for about two thirds of oceanic primary production, i.e., one third of the total primary production of organic material on Earth. Oceanic primary production is limited by nutrients, including iron in large areas of the oceans. A large part of the organic material produced is internally recycled. The microbial food web, based on dissolved organic matter, includes photoheterotrophic bacteria, using sunlight as an energy source but without the production of oxygen, and viruses that are responsible for control of the bacterial populations. The very small picoeukaryotes, both autotrophs and heterotrophs, many of which are grazers on bacteria, are extremely diverse but very poorly known. Marine food webs are very long in most areas and include many species. The standing stock of grazers is higher than that of primary producers in the sea, which is the opposite of the situation on land. Ocean productivity is on average far lower than land productivity. In the largest part of the ocean, beneath the shallow surface layers, no photosynthesis occurs at all and the largest part of the Earth’s biosphere is therefore dependent on external subsidies of organic matter. high-level carnivores often play key roles in structuring marine biodiversity and yet are exploited heavily with unquantified but cascading effects on biodiversity and on ecosystem functions. This does not occur on land, where the ecosystems are dominated by large herbivores and, of course, increasingly by humans which monopolize about 40% of the total world primary production. Top down
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[3] top predators sharks, humans
[3] 2nd order carnivores tuna
[3] 1st order carnivores squid
[2] herbivores anchovies
[1] primary producers phytoplankton
chapter 02 // the water world
019
marine ecosystem trophic levels trophic levels are the layers that make up food webs, wherein animals are ranked according to how many steps they are above the primary producers at the base of the food web. microscopic plants at the bottom are assigned a throphic level of 1, while the herbivores and detritivors that feed on the plants and detritus make up trophic level 2. higher order carnivores such as most marine mammals, are assigned trophic levels ranging from 3 to 5. animals that feed from more than one trophic level have non-integer trophic levels.
control of marine food webs implies that the fisheries of top predators have to be considered as a potential mechanism directly dependent on humans that may change the ecology of the entire ocean. habitat diversity and the number of marine habitats is difficult to define. Studies of zonation have typically demonstrated the existence of very narrow zones in intertidal areas, where direct observation is possible, and broader and broader zones as one goes deeper. However, it is recognized that this is due to our limited possibilities of observation and with increasing technological capability, finer discontinuities are revealed even in the water column. Besides zonation bands, a number of very specific habitats often linked to tectonic activities have been discovered over the last decades, starting with the hydrothermal vents in 1977 and followed in later years by cold seeps of gases and fluids, carbonate mounds, mud volcanoes, etc. Multibeam sonar has allowed much more detailed analysis of the sea floor showing fine-grained features in sediments that were previously thought to be rather uniform, or the very complex topology of marine canyons in the continental slope. With increasing potential of observation, the number of marine habitats on many different scales will certainly increase, and, as these habitats often contain species which are specifically adapted to their environmental conditions, so will species diversity.
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sixteen percent of all animal protein consumed worldwide comes from the ocean.
03
defining a problem overfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an accept-
able level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans. Fisheries catches represent a net export of mass and energy that can no longer be used by trophic levels higher than those fished. Thus, exploitation implies a depletion of secondary production of higher trophic levels due to the removal of prey. there are three major types of overfishing. Growth overfishing occurs when animals are harvested at an average size that is smaller than the size that would produce the maximum yield per recruit. The total yield from the fishery is therefore less than it would be if the fishing mortality rates, or percent of the stock removed each year, were lower. In such a case, less fishing would produce higher landings. This is the essence of fishery conservation, and holds true even when the resource is abundant. recruitment overfishing causes stock depletion and stock collapse. This means that the adult population was fished so heavily that the number and size of the adult population (spawning biomass) was reduced to the point that it did not have the reproductive capacity to replenish itself. When people think of overfishing, they usually mean recruitment overfishing, rather than growth overfishing. ecosystem overfishing is when the balance of the ecosystem is altered due to overfishing. Declines in the abundances of large predatory species declines and in turn small forage type species increase in abundance, causing a shift in the balance of the ecosystem towards smaller species of fish. Traditional concepts of overfishing (growth overfishing, recruitment overfishing, have their genesis in single-species population dynamics and stock assessment. These concepts implicitly include ecosystem attributes such as the assumption of logistic growth in production models or inclusion of natural mortality rates in dynamic pool models, but management advice is primarily generated for the single-species, single-fishery case. However, experience has taught us that for single-species concepts of overfishing to be relevant in the real world, elaboration of the concepts and models supporting them is needed to provide practical management advice consistent with important ecosystem considerations. Presently, most commercial fish species are managed based on `single-species’ management. Single species management looks mainly at the health of one particular exploited fish species to determine if their populations are over fished or depleted. This system of study does not consider other effects of fishing such as, habitat degradation, declining marine diversity and other changes in the marine food web. In general, single-species management has been commonly characterized as attempting to protect the ecosystem through ‘conservation of the parts,’ but does not look at the whole intricately woven web of an ecosystem. recently, single-species based definitions of over fishing have been criticized as being too narrowly focused. Many have suggested that fishery managers move toward an ‘ecosystem-based’ definition of over fishing. An ecosystem-based definition of over fishing would consider the various relationships among exploited fish species and other marine life in the ecosystem to ensure that healthy ecological processes in the marine environment are maintained. However, difficulties preventing ecosystem- based management include, a lack of information pertaining to the complex interrelationships and the absence of an agreeable definition for ecosystem-based over fishing.
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growth overfishing growth overfishing is when animals are harvested at an average size that is smaller than the size that would produce the maximum yield per recruit. the total yield from the fishery is therefore less than it would be if the fishing mortality rates, or percent of the stock removed each year, were lower.
age at first capture
underfishing
highest yields
growth overfishing
fishing mortality
chapter 03 // defining a problem
1
025
production / yield
maximum sustainable yield
0 0%
extinct
biomass [% unexploited]
100%
unexploited
recruitment overfishing this type of overfishing results in stock depletion and stock collapse. this means that the adult population was fished so heavily that the number and size of the adult population (spawning biomass) was reduced to a point that it did not have the reproductive capacity to replenish itself.
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chapter 03 // defining a problem
027
if current trends are not reversed, total collapse of all world fisheries should occur around 2048
04
shiftin g scales the nineteenth century closed with unequivocal proof, at long last, that
fishers’ mutterings about depletion of fish and falling catches were true. Walter Garstang’s study demonstrated a halving in catch per unit of bottom trawl fishing effort for that century’s last decade. Early experiments with tagged fish provided further dramatic confirmation of overfishing. Between 1903 and 1916, scientists marked seventeen thousand plaice with labeled tags. Analysis of tag return rates from fishers indicated that something like 70 percent of catchable fish were removed from the population every year. Figures for other species were less reliable but suggested removal rates by fishing of a quarter to a half of the fish every year. far from this depletion putting people off fishing, the industry prospered, benefiting from the development of ever more efficient steam engines. This technological revolution made up for falling catch per unit effort by enabling boats to fish for longer, trawl faster with larger nets, and reach grounds farther from port where fish populations were in better shape. Greater towing power together with net modifications also enabled boats to penetrate into areas of rough bottom that had been impossible to fish previously. In the years leading up to World War I, fishing fleets across the world grew in size and fishing power, and the geographic footprint of the fisheries spread and pressed deeper. The herring fishery was among the fisheries transformed by steam. At the turn of the twentieth century, less than 3 percent of the nearly seven hundred herring drifters in England and Wales had steam power. By the outbreak of war, nearly 80 percent were equipped with steam. while herring fisheries enjoyed a boom, extra fishing power placed heavy pressure on already depleted bottom fish populations. Although boats caught fewer fish per haul, they made up for it with more hauls and by retaining species considered trash fish in the nineteenth century. Countries neighboring Britain who fished in Europe’s common pool faced similar pressures, and their fisheries developed in much the same way, substituting new species as populations of prime fish dwindled. Throughout Edwardian Britain, for example, shops selling fried fish-and-chips were growing in popularity. Covering fish fillets with batter hid a multitude of sins, and trash fish, like monkfish, poor cod, and coley, found a market. The extra range afforded by steam tempted some at the time to voyage to Iceland and the Barents Sea to try their luck. But they lacked freezing facilities and fish stored on ice would keep for only a few weeks, making the trips hardly worth the effort. world war 1 interrupted fishing in the North Sea, especially bottom trawling and the herring fisheries of southeast England. Fishers were in great demand as skilled seamen for the navy, and many boats were pressed into service to clear mines and hunt submarines. As the war ground on, vessels out fishing were targeted by the military on both sides. Submarines sank 156 steam trawlers in 1916 alone. After that, fishing petered out almost completely in the North Sea until the end of hostilities. after the end of the war, suspicions about the previous depleted state of fish stocks were confirmed as fishers enjoyed a catch bonanza. The respite from fishing had allowed fish populations time to rebuild. But with little in the way of regulation to control fishing, big catches were short lived, lasting only a couple of years before catch rates fell to prewar levels again. Matters grew worse with time, and by the 1930s fishing the North Sea was a luckless grind. Michael Graham, later to become the British government’s chief fisheries officer, described the hardship of fishing then, contrasting it with the situation just a decade earlier in
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the 1920s, which by comparison seemed easy: In the early ’20’s [Danny’s] trawl was lighter, without a heavy ground rope or tickler chain, so it was easier to handle. It was not necessary in the ’20’s to fish among boulders, and to use three-hour hauls, which, with average amount of trawl mending, reduce the period of rest to under six hours out of twenty-four, including meal times. This is scraping for a living—expensive, skilful and up-to-date scraping; but anxious and ill rewarded—with every sign of being an effort contending with some invincible force of nature and economics —as men struggle on the edge of the Dustbowl, or cling to eastern American lands when the forest is coming back. fisheries stagnated. landings into england and Wales from the North Sea fell from 193,000 tonnes a year between 1909 and 1913, to 93,000 tonnes between 1934 and 1937. Something had to be done. In 1933, a momentous step was taken in Britain with the passage of the Sea-Fishing Industry Act that set minimum mesh sizes and landing size limits for some of the main species caught. It ended a period of virtual freedom from regulation that had lasted for sixty-five years since the 1868 repeal of fishing laws prompted by Thomas Huxley’s first commission of inquiry. The new regulations were also embodied in a 1937 convention agreed among European nations to regulate their shared fisheries. (Although similar fishery problems were recognized in New England in the 1930s, it would be 1953 before minimum mesh size restrictions were introduced there.) the industry reacted to falling yields from the North Sea in the way that it has always done, by fishing farther afield. During the 1920s steam trawlers had increasingly been making voyages north, trying their luck in the waters around Spitsbergen and Bear Island (Svalbard). The latter is a small volcanic remnant halfway between the northernmost tip of Scandinavia and the island of Spitsbergen, from which it is separated by a trough 800 meters deep (2700 feet). Fishers found plenty to catch in the fertile and virgin polar seas. William Robinson, a Hull trawlerman of the time, claimed, for example, that in fishing around Bear Island it only took five minutes to fill a trawl. the variations by distance in catch per unit effort were striking. In the 1930s, one hundred hours of fishing around Bear Island yielded an average of 120 tonnes of fish. Icelandic waters yielded 72 tonnes for the same fishing time, while the North Sea gave up just 7 tonnes. The difference more than justified the greater expense and risk of fishing northern seas. William Mitford described catches made by the Arctic Fox as including cod weighing 82 kilograms (180 pounds) and a halibut of 172 kilograms (378 pounds).12 Shipyards purpose-built larger steam-powered trawlers for the northern fisheries. Between 1906 and 1936, the average size of steam trawlers in the British fleet increased from 174 tonnes to 267 tonnes.13 Britain returned to distant-water fishing at levels not seen since the Newfoundland cod fisheries of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Other countries in Europe pursued similar ends at the same time, including Germany, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, and especially the ussr. World War II interrupted fishing once again. Much of the North Sea was placed off-limits due to minefields and military restrictions. The larger boats built for longdistance fishing trips to northern waters were requisitioned for naval service, taking out much of the Arctic fishing capacity, too. In contrast to the fighting above water, peace returned below the North Sea as fish populations were for several years largely spared the hook, net, and trawl. E.S. Russell, one of the founders of fishery science, writing on fisheries during the war, urged
chapter 04 // shifting scales
031
governments across Europe to take advantage of the recovery this time, rather than renewing intensive fishing as had happened after the first war. But it was not to be. The new bounty was expended as swiftly as the old after the war ended, creating a minor local fishing blip in the shift to distant waters that began between the wars. After World War II, almost all new trawlers built on Britain’s east coast were for distant water trawling, a trend mirrored across Europe. By the 1960s, when the Arctic Fox fished the pack ice–strewn waters around Svalbard, its neighboring port of Hull had switched entirely to long-distance fishing, spurning the North Sea. Catches from polar seas were ideal for the fish-and-chips market, being made up mainly of firm round fish like cod and haddock. To cut the travel costs of these long voyages, companies began to construct enormous factory freezer trawlers. By freezing fish immediately after capture, they could remain fishing for longer periods and store hundreds of tons of fish in their holds. technological advances
With these ships came other innovations. Stern ramps replaced the side-hauled trawls that forced the boat to turn beam on to wind and waves to bring the net aboard, often a dangerous maneuver in rolling Arctic seas. Factory trawlers also carried equipment to extract cod liver oil and process fish waste into meal. Eastern European nations followed the lead of Western Europe, but took distant-water fishing to a new level. They built fleets of ships that serviced giant factory ships at sea. These fleets were entirely self-contained, having aboard doctors, operating rooms, and movie theaters, and they returned only occasionally to home ports to discharge fish and for maintenance. They were floating towns built for the sole purpose of processing marine life into food. These boats were joined by fishing vessels from the Far East, notably Japan and Taiwan. By the 1970s, distant-water fleets spread fisheries across the Atlantic from pole to pole, in search of larger stocks. After being subjected to several decades of trawling in the post– World War II period, Europe’s distant-water fishing grounds in the far north and along the eastern seaboard of North America began to show signs of depletion, suffering falling catch per unit effort. The Icelandic government grew worried that foreign fleets put Iceland’s main source of revenue and foreign earnings at risk. In the 1950s, Britain and Germany caught roughly the same quantity of fish from Icelandic waters, as did Icelanders. In 1958, Iceland declared territorial waters extending 12 nautical miles from land. At the time, the international consensus was that territorial waters extended only 3 miles from the coast, although some countries claimed more based on historical precedent. Britain was incensed, and the government urged trawlers to ignore the limit, protecting them with naval frigates while they fished. It was the beginning of the cod war with Iceland, and the second in her waters since the fourteenth century. the dispute lasted until 1961 when britain finally agreed to the 12-mile limit with a three-year phase-in period during which her trawlers could work up to 6 miles from shore. Relations soured a decade later. Iceland declared a 50- nautical-mile limit in 1972, provoking Britain and West Germany into a second confrontation. Icelandic patrol vessels cut trawling gear away and rammed foreign fishing boats. The following year, naval escorts were once again sent to protect Britain’s distant-water interests. but the international tide was turning in Iceland’s favor. At a United Nations conference called to develop the law of the sea held in New York in 1973, more than a hundred nations agreed to the creation of
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100 nm
1000 nm
north sea, 7 tons
depart uk
variation by distance in catch per unit fishing in the 1930s, 100 hours of fishing around bear island yielded an average of 120 tons of fish. icelandic waters yielded 72 tons for the same fishing time, while the north sea gave up just 7 tons. the difference more than justified the greater expense and risk of fishing northern seas.
iceland, 72 tons
chapter 04 // shifting scales
033
1500 nm
bear island, norway, 120 tons
200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zones by 1975. Iceland declared its 200-mile zone in July 1975. Since 1976, Icelandic waters have been closed to the fishing vessels of other nations. Meanwhile, the North Sea and waters adjacent to mainland Europe were far from spent. The zenith of the British herring fishery came just before the First World War, when landings peaked at nearly 600,000 tonnes. They dropped back during the 1920s to a little under 400,000 tonnes a year, and fell again in the 1930s to around a quarter of a million tonnes. Contraction of the British herring industry was not due to falling stocks but arose from competition with Norway and Germany, whose catches were growing. Herring fisheries of these nations benefited from improvements in catching technology. Beginning in the 1930s, drift nets were replaced by purse seines and midwater trawls, made possible by greater engine power, developments the British were slow to adopt. These fishing methods were much more efficient, enabling vessels to actively target entire herring schools rather than simply set obstacles in their path in the hope that some of the school would be caught. Purse seines consist of large curtains of net buoyed up by floats at the surface and weighted at the bottom. They are generally a few tens of meters deep and are paid out around a school of fish by a small tender vessel to the main ship. The operation is completed when the tender passes the end of the net back to the ship and the net is closed at the bottom by pulling a drawstring, like a purse, trapping the fish inside. Freed of the constraint of touching bottom, nets could be greatly enlarged, able to capture hundreds of tons of fish at a haul. Herring vessels increased in size and worked farther offshore, catching
if a fishery is allowed to expand without sufficient check, there comes a point where the catching power of the fleet outstrips the ability of a fish population to replace itself.
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schools before fish came inshore to breed. By the 1950s, these vessels also targeted immature fish, as much of the herring was by then being processed and used for a variety of purposes. This point comes at different times for different species depending on their rate of population increase and behavior. In mixed-species fisheries, such as those pursued by bottom trawlers, species gradually drop out, sometimes unnoticed, as their populations decline. The fishery continues despite their loss because populations of other species remain viable. But where there is only a single species targeted, collapse means the end of the fishery. Fisheries for schooling fish that live in midwater usually target single species, herring being a classic case. Schooling fish remain highly catchable even as their populations decline. The remaining fish stay grouped together, enabling fishers to catch them as easily as when they were abundant, provided they can find the schools. And with the adoption of echo-sounding sonar in the 1950s, fisherm no longer had to wait for schools to rise to the surface. They could detect fish from the comfort of the bridge and send the nets down to them, extending the season and increasing efficiency. stock collapse, when it comes, can happen very quickly. in 1955, the first
of the great herring fisheries collapsed off the East Anglia coast of England. This herring population had sustained a highly productive fishery for over a thousand years, but it could not survive the onslaught of twentieth-century industrial fishing. In 1966, the total herring catch from the North Sea reached 1.2 million tonnes. Through the late 1960s and early 1970s, herring stocks crashed one after another across Europe, and by 1975, North Sea catches came to just 200,000 tonnes. Soon after, when the final collapse came, it was estimated that fisheries extracted over 70 percent of the herring from the North Sea every year, a take that even the most resilient species cannot withstand for long. In 1977, a moratorium was called on herring fishing in the North Sea and extended to western waters of Europe in 1978. Vessels redeployed into other open-water fisheries, such as that for mackerel off western France and Britain and for Norway pout in northern waters. The herring fishery reopened in 1981, with much reduced catch quotas (annual limits on the weight of fish that could be landed). By 1950 Europe’s sea fisheries could be said to have enjoyed a thousand years of growth, in terms of the overall size of catch, interrupted here and there by a few poor spells when people succumbed to plague or major fish stocks declined due to environmental shifts and fluctuations. From the beginning of the twentieth century, however, these fisheries ran on borrowed time. Catches were sustained only by growing fishing power, by fishing farther afield, by going deeper, and by switching to previously less favored species like dogfish and monkfish. These trends masked local decline and disappearance of once favored species. However, following the Second World War, the scale and might of fishing fleets expanded at a rate unprecedented in human history. In the 1970s, the effects of this fishing power became apparent not only with the final collapse of Europe’s largest fishery, herring, but also with the collapse on the other side of the world, off the coast of Peru, of the world’s most productive fishery, for anchoveta. There, intense El Niño conditions depressed the upwellings that fueled production of this schooling fish, and concentrated the remaining anchovies close to the coast where they were easy to catch. these catastrophic fishery collapses signaled a change in the relationship between people and fish. Humanity now had the means to drive fish populations to collapse, it was clear, even those sustaining the most
chapter 04 // shifting scales
productive fisheries. Thomas Huxley’s 1883 assertion that the great sea fisheries were inexhaustible was proven wrong. Although there was big money in distant-water fisheries, trawlers continued to scratch and scrape their way back and forth across the continental shelf around Europe. Smaller boats could still turn a profit, making short voyages to and from ports dotted all around the North Sea, Baltic, and Atlantic coasts. As catches fell, fishers responded by working harder. Trawling intensity in the northern North Sea, for example, tripled between 1960 and the mid 1990s. collapse aftermath
Today, the seabed in many parts of the North Sea is hit by trawls and dredges two to three times per year, and intensively fished regions get hit tens of times per year. In defending their trawls, some nineteenthcentury fishers argued that they increased the productivity of the seabed, like ploughing benefits the soil. Trawling stirred up food off the bottom and brought the fish in, they said. In the twentieth century, this argument gained a more scientific basis. By removing the accumulated biomass of bottom-living organisms, like sponges, corals, and sea fans, many of which are old and senescent, the trawl opens up the seabed for species with faster growth and high population turnover rates. The idea was borrowed from terrestrial agriculture. Grasslands are dominated by short-lived annual
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atlantic cod catch overfishing has depleted cod stocks severely in the atlantic. the catch has plummeted over the past 30 years and some fisheries have been closed entirely. fao warns that cod and many other heavily fished stocks will recover only if catches are sharply reduced and are carefully monitored for at least a decade.
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plants that turn over rapidly, producing biomass at high rates. By contrast, habitats dominated by slow-growing species, like oak woodlands, have lower productivity. Our ancestors found they could produce more food by converting woodlands to grassland for pasture and crops. Why shouldn’t the same be true in the sea? The answer is that it is true—but only to a point. Some species, like many flatfish, prefer open habitats made up of sand and mud rather than complex communities of coral, shell, and sponge. They do not need the shelter from predators provided by these complex habitats because they can blend into the seabed, either by changing color or burying themselves. They feed on invertebrates like worms and mollusks that live in the sediment. By removing biologically created habitats from above the seabed, trawling increases the area of feeding habitat available to flatfish. But there comes a point where even species with high population turnover rates cannot cope. A recent study suggests the North Sea has passed that point, and that populations of invertebrates living in sediments in heavily trawled areas are less productive than their counterparts in places with lower trawling frequency. Intensive trawling is undermining the food webs that support commercial fish species. The sea has been put to the plough, but we do not sow—we only reap. today, the degradation of the seabed noticed by fishers in the 19th century has been brought almost to its conclusion. With such frequent visitation by trawls, few animals or plants that live above the surface can survive, just as little other than a few weeds would survive ploughing the land two or three times a year. The 1970s marked a turning point in the fortunes of Europe’s bottom fisheries. Landings of fish from the North Sea had risen from under a million tonnes in 1900 to a 20th century peak of more than 3.5 million tonnes in 1970. The collapse of herring was the first of a wave of declines that quickly spread to species caught by the trawl. The 1970s also heralded a change in management for fisheries. A coalition of six European nations formed the European Economic Community in 1958. In the early 1970s, several more countries joined up, including the United Kingdom. Management of fisheries was ceded to bureaucrats in Brussels under the new Common Fisheries Policy. Just when nations like Iceland took control of their own waters, Europeans pooled resources, guaranteeing one another the right to fish in the waters of any member state. Instead of responding to mounting evidence of overfishing by easing pressure to allow recovery, Europe’s politicians sought to prop up an ailing industry with overgenerous quotas. More fish stocks declined. Like gamblers desperately seeking a change of luck, they spent from their savings with inevitable consequences—exhaustion both of luck and of fish. In 1970, only 10 percent of fish stocks in the North Sea were classified as seriously overfished. By 2000, the figure had risen to nearly 50 percent and only 18 percent of stocks were still considered healthy. currents of change
It is difficult if not impossible to reconstruct the full history of exploitation of fish populations in Europe. Fisheries stretch back hundreds of years or more in many cases, and it was only very recently that we began collecting systematic data. Decent catch data can be traced back to the early twentieth century for a few species, whereas estimates of population sizes of target species are often available only as far back as the 1950s or 1960s. To estimate population sizes in the past, we have to develop theoretical models constructed using knowledge of marine biology and of the life histories of the species involved, together with the patchy historical records that can
today’s stocks are just 1/10 of their size in 1900, and 60% of that decline has happened since 1950.
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marine decline corresponding to human development periods estimated common patterns of decline in six species groups and in three marine ecosystems over seven human development periods. they include prehuman, hunter-gatherer period; agricultural; market establishment; market development; global market 1900–1950; and 2nd global market 1950–2000). human impacts escalated into rapid resource depletion first during the market development period and continued into the global market periods,
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be pieced together. The sparse fishery data available enable us to assess the performance of these models and work out refinements. Villy Christensen, a scientist from the University of British Columbia, and his colleagues examined trends in European catches and developed models to reconstruct the state of fish stocks from 1900 to 2000. They estimate that, in aggregate, today’s stocks are just one-tenth of their size in 1900, and two-thirds of that decline has happened since 1950. but 1900 is far from being an unexploited baseline from which to measure change. By then, Europe’s waters had already been heavily fished, with complaints of falling catches for at least forty years and the first serious steps taken to protect fish stocks in the 1890s. The year 1900, then, represents a waypoint in the downward trajectory of fish populations, rather than a pristine baseline from which to measure declines. In relation to true unexploited population sizes, we probably have today less than 5 percent of the total mass of fish that once swam in Europe’s seas. Lumping fish together in catch statistics hides important detail. Some species are more affected by fishing than others. Simon Jennings, from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science in England, and his colleagues looked at change between the 1920s and 1990s in the composition of fish catches taken from an area of the northern North Sea between the Shetland Isles and Norway. They found that large-bodied, long-lived, late-maturing fish had declined faster than species that matured earlier in life. The big fish had low resilience and could not keep up with the mortality imposed by fishing. Some of these species have now all but disappeared from European waters, like the angel shark and common skate. The common skate, as its name implies, was once abundant and frequently caught from Iceland and Norway south to Senegal. It is a large-bodied animal that could reach 120 centimeters (4 feet) from wing tip to wing tip and weigh up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds). For a fish, it produces relatively few young, laying up to forty eggs per year. Common skates were rarely targeted directly but often caught in trawls, tangled in gill nets, and hooked on longlines. Little by little they declined, silently disappearing from former haunts. Today, they are restricted to a few small patches of rocky habitat where trawlers still cannot go.Jennings and his colleagues estimate that in combination, today’s populations of large-bodied fish species in the North Sea are only one-fiftieth the size they would be in the absence of fishing. Species like the common skate have declined more, probably as much as a thousandfold, others less. Small-bodied species with high rates of population turnover—that is, those most able to withstand high rates of fishing mortality—have also been affected. They include animals like herring, sprat, and sardines, and together they have been reduced to about a quarter of their natural abundance. one of the large–bodied species among the disappeared is the bluefin tuna. These giants of the sea breed in the Mediterranean, but when warmer climatic conditions allowed, would venture into northern waters to feed on abundant herring and other schooling fish. In the 1920s, bluefin tuna were a nuisance to herring fishers in the Kattegat at the entrance to the Baltic because they shredded their nets. They were abundant enough in the 1930s to attract big game fishers to the Yorkshire coast of England where the largest caught weighed 387 kilograms (851 pounds). Today, conditions are again warm enough for the bluefin to visit the North Sea, but there are so few left they no longer make it that far north. the legacy of intensive fishing extends far beyond the species we have targeted and pervades every sea on
chapter 04 // shifting scales
the planet. Trawling has virtually eliminated entire habitats. The Wadden Sea affords a telling example of the losses wrought by centuries of fishing and human influence. This sea fringes the northern coast of mainland Europe between the Netherlands and a point two-thirds of the way up the peninsula of Denmark. It is an area of shallow seas and estuaries, partially enclosed by a string of offshore barrier islands. Reefs built over thousands of years by Sabellaria worms secreting stony tubes used to dot tidal channels of the Wadden and adjacent North Seas. Today, almost all these reefs have been destroyed, ground to rubble and sand by trawls. Structurally complex bottom habitats including Sabellaria and oyster reefs, eelgrass, and seaweeds have all but disappeared due to destructive fishing and pollution. Reclamation of the Dutch Zuider Zee part of the Wadden Sea in the 1930s led to the local extinction of the bottlenose dolphin and its prey, the Zuider Zee herring. Harbor porpoises have also been virtually eliminated from the Wadden Sea and from the Bay of Biscay to the west. Today, the few sightings of these creatures occur in offshore waters, far from their coastal haunts of past centuries. The bottom-fish fisheries that the Wadden Sea once supported have all collapsed. At the turn of the twentieth century, the handline fishery for haddock alone yielded two million fish annually. Today, only a handful of wild species of shellfish support commercial fisheries. Pollution problems have grown not only because of greater inputs from inland populations, but also because the capacity of marine species that remain to filter and process organic matter has been so reduced. elsewhere in europe’s waters, habitat destruction continues. on britain’s
west coast, scallop dredges are still busy destroying some of the last maerl beds. These rich habitats were built over hundreds of years by slow-growing coralline algae. They occur in places flushed by strong tidal streams of clear water and are important nursery habitats for species like scallops. Extensive areas of maerl once occurred in Strangford Lough, a finger of the sea that points deep into Northern Ireland. Despite legislation passed to protect the beds, scallop dredgers destroyed them. Oyster reefs were once common along Europe’s coasts and estuaries, but dredging, overexploitation, and siltation have destroyed most of them. So, too, have the largest and most productive mussel beds been lost to fishing and siltation. Together, all of these habitats once supported hundreds of associated species whose fates we can guess.
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present current capture fisheries and aquaculture supplied the world with about 110 million
tones of food fish in 2006 (all data presented are subject to rounding), providing an apparent per capita supply of 16.7 kg (live weight equivalent), which is among the highest on record. Of this total, aquaculture accounted for 47 percent. Outside China, per capita supply has shown a modest growth rate of about 0.5 percent per year since 1992 (following a decline from 1987), as growth in supply from aquaculture more than offset the effects of static capture fishery production and a rising population. In 2006, per capita food fish supply was estimated at 13.6 kg if data for China are excluded. Overall, fish provided more than 2.9 billion people with at least 15 percent of their average per capita animal protein intake. The share of fish proteins in total world animal protein supplies grew from 14.9 percent in 1992 to a peak of 16.0 percent in 1996, declining to about 15.3 percent in 2005. Notwithstanding the relatively low fish consumption by weight in low-income food-deficit countries (lifdcs) of 13.8 kg per capita in 2005, the contribution of fish to total animal protein intake was significant – at 18.5 percent – and is probably higher than indicated by official statistics in view of the under-recorded contribution of smallscale and subsistence fisheries. china remains by far the largest producer with reported fisheries production of 51.5 million tonnes in 2006 (17.1 and 34.4 million tonnes from capture fisheries and aquaculture, respectively), providing an estimated domestic food supply of 29.4 kg per capita as well as production for export and non-food purposes. However, there are continued indications that capture fisheries and aquaculture production statistics for China may be too high, as noted in previous issues of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, and that this problem has existed since the early 1990s. Because of the importance of China and the uncertainty about its production statistics, as in previous issues of this report, China is generally discussed separately from the rest of the world. In 2008, China indicated that it was working to revise its fishery and aquaculture production statistics downwards based on the outcome of the National Agricultural Census of 2006, which included for the first time questions relating to fisheries and aquaculture, as well as fishery surveys. Revised statistics for a period of years are expected to be made available by 2009 and to be reflected subsequently in fao statistics and in future issues of The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture. in 2008, china reported a downward revision of total fishery and aquaculture production for 2006 of more than 10 percent, corresponding to a reduction of more than 2 million tonnes in capture production and more than 3 million tonnes in aquaculture production. Preliminary estimates for 2007 based on reporting by some major fishing countries indicate that world fishery production excluding China is 96 million tonnes, representing approximately a 3 percent increase for capture production and a 7 percent increase for aquaculture production compared with 2006. Global capture fisheries production in 2006 was about 92 million tonnes, with an estimated first-sale value of US$91.2 billion, comprising about 82 million tones from marine waters and a record 10 million tonnes from inland waters. China, Peru and the United States of America remained the top producing countries. World capture fisheries production has been relatively stable in the past decade with the exception of marked fluctuations driven by catches of anchoveta – a species extremely susceptible to oceanographic conditions determined by the El Niño Southern Oscillation – in the
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Southeast Pacific Fluctuations in other species and regions tend to compensate for each other to a large extent. China remains by far the global leader with more than 17 million tonnes in 2006. Asian countries accounted for 52 percent of the global capture production. Overall catches in the Western Central Pacific and in the Western Indian Ocean continued to increase, whereas capture production decreased in both the Western and Eastern Central areas of the Atlantic Ocean. In the Eastern Indian Ocean, total catches in 2006 returned to growth after the decrease in 2005 caused by the destructive effects of the tsunami of December 2004. catches from inland waters, almost two-thirds of which were taken in asia in
2006, have shown a slowly but steadily increasing trend since 1950, owing in part to stock enhancement practices and possibly also to improved reporting. Aquaculture continues to be the fastest growing animal food-producing sector and to outpace population growth, with per capita supply from aquaculture increasing from 0.7 kg in 1970 to 7.8 kg in 2006, an average annual growth rate of 6.9 percent. It is set to overtake capture fisheries as a source of food fish. From a production of less than 1 million tonnes per year in the early 1950s, production in 2006 was reported to be 51.7 million tonnes with a value of US$78.8 billion, representing an annual growth rate of nearly 7 percent. world aquaculture is heavily dominated by the Asia–Pacific region, which accounts for 89 percent of production in terms of quantity and 77 percent in terms of value. This dominance is mainly due to China’s enormous production, which accounts for 67 percent of global production in terms of quantity and 49 percent of global value. China produces 77 percent of all carps (cyprinids) and 82 percent of the global supply of oysters (ostreids). The Asia–Pacific region accounts for 98 percent of carp, 95 percent of oyster production, and 88 percent of shrimps and prawns (penaeids). Norway and Chile are the world’s two leading producers of cultured salmons (salmonids), accounting for 33 and 31 percent, respectively, of world production. Aquatic plant production by aquaculture in 2006 was 15.1 million tonnes. The culture of aquatic plants has increased consistently, with an average annual growth rate of 8 percent since 1970. In 2006, it contributed 93 percent of the world’s total supply of aquatic plants, or 15.1 million tonnes (US$7.2 billion), some 72 percent of which was produced by China. However, growth rates for aquaculture production are slowing, partly owing to public concerns about aquaculture practices and fish quality. Genetically modified organisms (gmos) remain a controversial issue. In response to these concerns, integrated multitrophic aquaculture (which promotes economic and environmental sustainability) and organic aquaculture are on the rise. Fisheries and aquaculture, directly or indirectly, play an essential role in the livelihoods of millions of people around the world. In 2006, an estimated 43.5 million people were directly engaged, part time or full time, in primary production of fish either in capture from the wild or in aquaculture, and a further 4 million people were engaged on an occasional basis (2.5 million of these in India). In the last three decades, employment in the primary fisheries and aquaculture sector has grown faster than the world’s population and employment in traditional agriculture. Eighty six percent of fishers and fish farmers worldwide live in Asia, with China having the greatest numbers (8.1 million fishers and 4.5 million fish farmers). In 2006, other countries with a significant number of fishers and fish farmers were India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam. Most
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fishers and fish farmers are small-scale, artisanal fishers, operating on coastal and inland fishery resources. Currently, fleet-size reduction programmes in China and other countries, aimed at tackling overfishing, are reducing the number of full-time and part-time fishers. Globally, the number of people engaged in capture fisheries declined by 12 percent in the period 2001–06. On the other hand, in recent decades, major increases in the total number have come from the development of aquaculture activities. In 2006, the estimated number of fish farmers was nearly 9 million people, with 94 percent operating in Asia. For each person employed in the primary sector, it has been estimated that there could be four employed in the secondary sector (including fish processing, marketing and service industries), indicating employment of about 170 million in the whole industry. Taking account of dependants, about 520 million people could be dependent on the sector, or nearly 8 percent of the world population. the number of fishing vessels powered by engines is estimated to have been about 2.1 million in 2006, of which almost 70 percent were concentrated in Asia. Of the remaining vessels, most were accounted for by Africa, followed by Europe, the Near East, Latin America and the Caribbean. As almost 90 percent of motorized fishing vessels in the world are less than 12 metres long, such vessels dominate everywhere, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Near East. The fishing fleets in the Pacific region, Oceania, Europe and North America tend to consist of vessels that, on average, are slightly larger. This characteristic is confirmed by the distribution of industrialized fleets (vessels of more than 100 gross tonnage [gt], roughly more than 24 m long, extracted from Lloyds Fairplay database), which shows them as rather evenly distributed among Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. Correspondingly, there are a higher proportion of vessels of more than 100 gt in the Europe, North America and Latin America and Caribbean regions than in the Africa and Asia regions. Fleet reduction schemes have had mixed success. The numbers of both fishing vessels and fish carriers have stayed around the same level in the last ten years. While the size of the fishing fleet has declined slightly in terms of gross tonnage, the fleet of fish carriers in 2006 was less than half that of 1990, as recently built fish carriers have been much smaller than their predecessors. Moreover, scrapped vessels have on the whole been much larger than those built to replace them. an overall review of the state of marine fishery resources confirms that the proportions of overexploited, depleted and recovering stocks have remained relatively stable in the last 10–15 years, after the noticeable increasing trends observed in the 1970s and 1980s with the expansion of fishing effort. In 2007, about 28 percent of stocks were either overexploited (19 percent), depleted (8 percent) or recovering from depletion (1 percent) and thus yielding less than their maximum potential owing to excess fishing pressure. A further 52 percent of stocks were fully exploited and, therefore, producing catches that were at or close to their maximum sustainable limits with no room for further expansion. Only about 20 percent of stocks were moderately exploited or underexploited with perhaps a possibility of producing more. Most of the stocks of the top ten species, which together account for about 30 percent of world marine capture fisheries production in terms of quantity, are fully exploited or overexploited. The areas showing the highest proportions of fully-exploited stocks are the Northeast Atlantic, the Western Indian Ocean and the Northwest Pacific. Overall, 80 percent of the
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world fish stocks for which assessment information is available are reported as fully exploited or overexploited and, thus, requiring effective and precautionary management. As stated before in The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, the maximum wild capture fisheries potential from the world’s oceans has probably been reached, and a more closely controlled approach to fisheries management is required, particularly for some highly migratory, straddling and other fishery resources that are exploited solely or partially in the high seas. accounting for more than 10 million tonnes in 2006, inland fisheries contributed 11 percent of global capture fisheries production, and landings from inland waters remain essential and irreplaceable elements in the diets of both rural and urban people in many parts of the world, especially in developing countries. Although global landings from inland fisheries have grown continuously, there are few examples of collapsing fisheries, and a number of fish stocks, especially in Latin America, remain lightly exploited. Thus, adopting a precautionary approach, the fisheries could be developed further. Results from five case studies of river and lake fisheries show that inland fisheries are highly complex and that, where ecosystem processes remain largely undisturbed, stock dynamics are basically controlled by environmental processes and factors external to
chapter 05 // present current
the fisheries, such as natural fluctuations in climate, flood patterns, and variations in nutrient inputs (whether natural or resulting from pollution). However, anthropogenic ecosystem impacts in the form of species introductions, pollution, habitat fragmentation and changes in the flood cycle can reduce the resilience of fish stocks to fishing pressure. Inland fisheries management requires an ecosystem approach, particularly in the catchment areas of large lake and river systems. The values and benefits of inland fisheries can be increased if such fisheries are protected through more effective governance and management. in 2006, more than 110 million tonnes (77 percent) of world fish production was used for direct human consumption. Almost all of the remaining 33 million tones were destined for non-food products, in particular the manufacture of fishmeal and fish oil. In 2006, 48.5 percent of the fish destined for human consumption was in live and fresh form, which is often the most preferred and highly priced product form. Fifty-four percent (77 million tonnes) of the world’s fish production underwent some form of processing. Seventy-four percent (57 million tonnes) of this processed fish was used for manufacturing products for direct human consumption in frozen, cured and prepared or preserved form, and the rest for non-food uses. Freezing is the main method of processing fish for food use, accounting for 50 percent of total processed fish for human consumption in 2006, followed by prepared and preserved (29 percent) and cured fish (21 percent). The utilization and processing of fish production have diversified significantly in the last two decades, particularly into high-value fresh and processed products, fuelled by changing consumer tastes and advances in technology, packaging, logistics and transport. The quantity of fish used as raw material for fishmeal in 2006 was about 20.2 million tonnes, representing a 14 percent decrease compared with 2005, and still well below the peak level of more than 30 million tones recorded in 1994. Another emerging application of fish, crustaceans and other marine organisms is as a source of bioactive molecules for the pharmaceutical industry. fish and fishery products are highly traded, with more than 37 percent (live weight equivalent) of total production entering international trade as various food and feed products. World exports of fish and fishery products reached us$85.9 billion in 2006. In real terms (adjusted for inflation), exports of fish and fishery products increased by 32.1 percent in the period 2000–06. Exports of fish for human consumption have increased by 57 percent since 1996. Available data for 2007 indicate further strong growth to reach about us$92 billion. Although some weakening in demand was registered in late 2007 and early 2008, as turmoil from the financial sector started to affect consumer confidence in major markets, the long-term trend for the trade in fish is positive, with a rising share of both developed and developing country production arriving in international markets. prices of fishery products followed the general upward trend of all food prices in the course of 2007 and early 2008. This is the first time in decades that real prices of fish have increased. China further consolidated its position as the leading fish exporter with exports amounting to US$9.0 billion in 2006 and us$9.3 billion in 2007. China’s fishery exports have increased remarkably since the early 1990s owing to its growing fishery production, as well as the expansion of its fish-processing industry. China has also experienced a significant increase in its fishery imports in the past decade. In 2006, it was the sixth-largest importer with us$4.1 billion in
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fishermen by continent national governments have traditionally subsidised the fishing industry, since it is an important source of employment, food and export earnings. global subsidies, which reach about us$ 13 billion per year, encourage fishermen to remain in a depleted fishery even though it may no longer be profitable, thus further depleting marine resources. about 50 million people (including 35 million fishermen) worldwide depend directly on fishing for their living.
fishery imports. In 2007, this figure rose to us$4.5 billion, partly owing to imports of raw material for processing and re-export. The fishery net exports of developing countries (i.e. the total value of their exports less the total value of their imports) continue to be of vital importance to the economies of many fish-exporting developing countries. They have increased significantly in recent decades, growing from us$1.8 billion in 1976 to us$24.6 billion in 2006. The contribution of farmed products to international trade has grown considerably, with export growth rates for species such as catfish and tilapia now exceeding 50 percent per year. These species are entering new markets where, only a few years ago, they were practically unknown. This highlights the potential for further growth in the production, trade and consumption of species and products that respond to the consumers’ needs for moderately priced white-meat fillets. preliminary estimates for 2006 indicate a slight increase of global per capita fish supply, to about 16.7 kg, after 16.4 kg in 2005. World apparent per capita fish consumption has been steadily increasing from an average of 9.9 kg in the 1960s, 11.5 kg in the 1970s, 12.5 kg in the 1980s, 14.4 kg in the 1990s, and reaching 16.4 kg in 2005. However, this increase has not been evenly distributed across regions and it has mainly been due to increased apparent consumption in China, for which there is an impending revision of production statistics. In the last three decades, the per capita fish supply has remained almost static in sub-Saharan Africa (ssa) but has risen dramatically in China and in the Near East/North Africa region. It is estimated that fish provides at least 50 percent of total animal protein intake
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global capture production in 2006 was about 92 million tons, a decrease of 2.2 million from 2005.
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in some small island developing states, as well as in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Equatorial Guinea, French Guiana, the Gambia, Ghana, Indonesia and Sierra Leone. The contribution of fish proteins to total world animal protein supplies rose from 13.7 percent in 1961 to a peak of 16.0 percent in 1996, before declining somewhat to 15.3 percent in 2005. Corresponding figures for the world, excluding China, show an increase from 12.9 percent in 1961 to 15.4 percent in 1989, slightly declining since then to 14.7 percent in 2005. Whereas fish provided about 7.6 percent of animal protein in North and Central America and more than 11 percent in Europe, in Africa it supplied around 19 percent, in Asia nearly 21 percent and in the lifdcs including China about 19 percent. fisheries management poses challenges for all countries, especially those that are capacity poor. In some countries, improvements in resource management are proceeding hand-in-hand with public-sector reform and measures to promote better governance. These outcomes are increasingly being incentive-linked to the provision of development assistance. A key fisheries management issue is the lack of progress with the reduction of fishing capacity and related harmful subsidies. The 2007 session of the fao Committee on Fisheries (cofi) referred to the lack of progress in this area and the need to match fishing capacity with sustainable harvesting levels. The United Nations General Assembly Resolution 62/177 in 2007 deplored the fact that fish stocks in many parts of the world are overfished or subject to sparsely regulated fishing effort. The relationship between excess capacity and illegal, unregulated and unreported (iuu) fishing was also highlighted in cofi, the United Nations General Assembly and regional fora. There was only limited progress in the implementation of measures interalia to mainstream the precautionary and ecosystem approaches to fisheries, eliminate bycatch and discards, regulate bottom-trawl fisheries, manage shark fisheries, and deal with iuu fishing in a comprehensive manner. A sharp focus on capacity building for fisheries management is a priority both for developing and developed countries. a further and important reason to promote capacity building occurs where regional cooperation and collaboration underpin the implementation of agreements. Regional fisheries management organizations (rfmos), the cornerstones of international fisheries governance, are struggling to fulfil their mandates despite concerted efforts to improve their performance. This situation results partly from the frameworks within which they operate and partly from an apparent lack of political will by members to implement decisions in a timely manner. In an effort to improve their effectiveness, many rfmos are implementing performance reviews. Steps have been taken, or are being taken, to establish new rfmos where none existed previously. Once these are established, nearly all of the world’s major fish stocks will be covered by rfmos, the major exception being straddling stocks in the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. International cooperation is strengthened and many problems resolved through consultation and the timely exchange of information. For rfmos, such exchanges are critical in dealing with common issues such as iuu fishing and the harmonization of data formats. fao and non-fao regional fishery bodies (rfbs) have met biennially since 1999 to consider matters of common concern and to learn how different bodies handle and resolve similar problems. These meetings marked a watershed in cooperation among rfbs. in 2007, the nature and scope of cooperation was taken a step further with the First Meeting of Regional Fishery Body Secretariats Network. The interna-
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tional dimension of aquaculture governance is gradually gaining ground. There is an extensive array of international agreements, standards and procedures already in place for various aspects of aquaculture and its value chain elsewhere. Compliance with some of these agreements, standards and procedures is mandatory, and recognized competent authorities are empowered to verify compliance. New disciplines governing the use of subsidies in the fisheries sector are being negotiated in the World Trade Organization (wto), and much progress has been achieved since the negotiations were launched. total capture fisheries production
According to the data compiled by fao on the basis of reports from national authorities and other sources (e.g. regional fishery organizations), global capture production in 2006 was about 92 million tonnes. This represents a decrease of 2.2 million tonnes in comparison with 2005. As in previous years, the change in total world capture production was mostly caused by environmentally driven fluctuations in anchoveta catches. While total inland water catches increased significantly in 2005 and 2006, total global marine capture production (excluding anchoveta catches) has remained fairly stable since 2002 at between 74.3 and 75.3 million tonnes. However, important groups of species, countries and fishing areas do show different trends. These are discussed below in the section on marine capture production. according to preliminary statistics by major fishing countries excluding China, total capture production in 2007 increased by about 3 percent in comparison with 2006. However, China’s capture production decreased by more than 2 million tones following the adjustment to the national data collection system. the estimated first-hand value of global capture fisheries production amounted to US$91.2 billion, representing a 4.5-percent growth over the value recorded for 2005. Of this total, fish for reduction purposes had a first-hand value of US$3.4 billion. China has remained by far the global leader with more than 17 million tonnes and a very stable capture production, as the variation from one year to the next in its reported total catches was less than 1 percent in the period 1986–2006. Compared with 2004, the ranking of the top ten producer countries remained unchanged, with two exceptions. For 2006, Chile ranked two places lower as a consequence of the anchoveta catch decrease, and the Philippines replaced Norway in tenth position. In addition to the six Asian countries among the top ten producers, four other Asian countries (i.e. Myanmar, Viet Nam, the Republic of Korea and Bangladesh) occupied positions 12–15. This was reflected in Asia’s share of total catches, which exceeded 52 percent of the global capture fisheries production in 2006, the largest share so far recorded. global marine capture production was 81.9 million tonnes in 2006, the third lowest since 1994. Only in 1998 and 2003 was production lower, as also in those years anchoveta catches decreased considerably. Although the ranking of the first eight principal marine fishing areas in 2006 was still the same as in 2004, trends in the single regions diverged. Overall catches in the Western Central Pacific and in the Western Indian Ocean continued to increase. In contrast, capture production decreased by more than 10 percent after 2000 in both the Western and Eastern Central areas of the Atlantic Ocean, although they are quite different in terms of the main fishery resources and type of fishing. In the Eastern Indian Ocean, total catches in 2006 rebounded after the decrease in 2005 caused by the destructive
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effects of the tsunami that affected parts of this region in December 2004. After submission to fao of final catch statistics for 2005, it became clear that, among the Eastern Indian Ocean countries, those most affected by the tsunami in terms of reduced catches had been Sri Lanka (–51.1 percent), Malaysia (–12.1 percent) and India (–8.4 percent). However, in Indonesia, the 2004 total catch was maintained, as the tsunami impacts on fishing activities in the western part (Banda Aceh) of the country were offset by increased catches in other regions. among the temperate areas of both hemispheres, it is worth noting the considerable increase in 2006 catches of Argentine shortfin squid in the Southwest Atlantic, and of European anchovy in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. These increases contributed significantly to the overall 29 and 13 percent respective rise in total catches compared with the previous year. In contrast, in both the Southeast Atlantic and the Southwest Pacific, total catches fell by more than 10 percent in 2006. In the Southeast Pacific, the drop was even sharper. However, it affected fish for human consumption only marginally as it stemmed mostly from the decrease in anchoveta catches, the majority of which are processed into fishmeal and fish oil. In the Northeast Atlantic, catch decline has been progressive, with total catches falling by almost one quarter in ten years. in 2006, the ten species that contributed most to global catches were the same as in 2004. There were only some minor changes in the ranking. This group of species, which represent more than 30 percent of the total global marine catch, consists of five small pelagic species (anchoveta, Atlantic herring, chub and Chilean jack mackerels, and Japanese anchovy), two tunas (skipjack and yellowfin), two low-value gadiformes (Alaska pollock and blue whiting) that are mostly marketed in processed forms, and the largehead hairtail, a bentho-pelagic species for which 90 percent of the catches are reported by China. total catches of some species groups continued to increase in 2006, setting new records. However, different trends can be noted within each group. The tunas reached a new maximum at more than 6.4 million tonnes, with skipjack catches higher than ever, whereas yellowfin catches were reported to have decreased by about 20 percent from the peak reached in 2003. Cephalopod catches also reached a new high in 2006 at 4.3 million tonnes. Within this group, recent catch trends for the three main species show very different patterns. Catches of jumbo flying squid in the Eastern Pacific continued to boom, growing almost fivefold since 2000. However, in the same period, catches of Japanese flying squid in the Northwest Pacific declined. In the Southwest Atlantic, catches of the Argentine shortfin squid recovered after a dramatic drop in 2004–05. Marine crustaceans as a whole totaled 5.7 million tonnes in 2006, with the crab and lobster groups at the highest level ever, and shrimps only slightly lower than the peak reached in 2004. Harvests of bivalves (scallops, clams, oysters and mussels) and gastropods decreased for most species groups in 2005, but they showed signs of recovery in 2006. After reaching a high of about 0.9 million tonnes in 2003, catches of the “sharks, rays and chimaeras” group have declined. In 2006, they totaled 0.75 million tonnes, a drop of 15 percent from the peak. When analyzing the trend in shark catches in the last decade, it should be taken into account that this species group has been at the centre of the attention of international institutions (e.g. the fao–promoted International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks, known as ipoa– Sharks), regional fishery organizations and the public. This raised awareness has helped to
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improve the reporting of catches for this group. However, this improvement in reporting makes it difficult to identify the trends for actual exploitation. To obtain the best possible collation of available shark data, fao also complements data reported by countries with those collected by the regional tuna bodies. However, collection and reporting of shark data still need to improve significantly as the formulation of appropriate management measures requires detailed information. A significant number of tuna and shark species are classified as oceanic (epipelagic and deep-water). inland capture production
In 2006, reported global inland water catches exceeded 10 million tonnes for the first time. Compared with final 2004 data, this represented an increase of 12.8 percent. However, the reliability of inland water catch statistics reported by several countries remains questionable. It is also difficult to distinguish between real increases in catches and increased production reported as a consequence of an improved data collection system. Almost all of the increase registered in the last two years for which data are available has come from Asia. This continent now accounts for two-thirds of total global inland capture production. With 2.4 million tonnes, Africa is a clear second in the ranking by continent but its production decreased by 2.7 percent in 2006 after a decade-long rising trend. Total
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fish as food: per capita there are large variations across countries and regions of the world in terms of the amount of total fish supply for human consumption, reflecting diverse eating habits and traditions, and the availability of fish and other foods, prices, socioeconomic levels, and seasons. per capita apparent fish consumption can vary from less than one kg per capita in one country to more than 100 kg in another. differences are also evident within countries, with consumption usually higher in coastal areas.
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catches in the Americas were down slightly from the 2004 high, while the opposite occurred in Europe, with production recovering from the lowest total catch registered in 2004. However, figures for this continent are largely influenced by those of the Russian Federation, which accounts for about 60 percent of Europe’s production. china and other developing countries together now account for 95 percent of global inland capture production. In several developing countries, inland fisheries constitute a primary source of animal proteins, and a significant addition to the main diet in many others. On the other hand, in most industrialized countries, the number of recreational fishers now greatly exceeds that of professional ones, as inland water harvests have been significantly reduced. The top ten producers have remained the same as in 2004. bangladesh has replaced india in second spot, but it is still a long way behind China. Cambodia has gained four positions with an increase of 30 percent compared with 2005. This impressive performance probably in part reflects an extended coverage of the data collection system. In percentage terms, China still accounts for more than 25 percent of global production, and the share of the top ten producers as a group has grown as the total for inland catches by all the other countries has decreased to 31.6 percent. Many countries do not report any species breakdown of their inland water catches but only a single amount for overall national production under the “freshwater fishes nei (not elsewhere included)� species item. For 2006, more than 57 percent of the global inland water capture was registered under this category in the fao database, an increased share as also most
world aquaculture is dominated by the asia–pacific region, accounting for 89 percent of all production
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of the production gain in the last two years was reported as not identified by species or major group of species. The “miscellaneous freshwater fishes” (which includes the “freshwater fishes NEI” item but also another 65 species items) is by far the predominant group. The “carps, barbels and other cyprinids” group, which grew substantially in 2005 and maintained the same level in 2006, is now second, having overtaken the “tilapias and other cichlids” group. However, as most of the unidentified catches are reported by Asian countries such as Bangladesh, China and Myanmar, it is very probable that the great majority of this inland water production belongs to the cyprinid group, which is by far the most common in the continent. world aquaculture production
The contribution of aquaculture to global supplies of fish, crustaceans, mollusks and other aquatic animals3 has continued to grow, increasing from 3.9 percent of total production by weight in 1970 to 36.0 percent in 2006. In the same period, production from aquaculture easily outpaced population growth, with per capita supply from aquaculture increasing from 0.7 kg in 1970 to 7.8 kg in 2006, an average annual growth rate of 7.0 percent. Aquaculture accounted for 47 percent of the world’s fish food supply in 2006. In China, 90 percent of fish food production comes from aquaculture (2006). This indicates that aquaculture production in the rest of the world accounts for 24 percent of food fish supply. in 2006, china contributed 67 percent of the world’s supply of cultured aquatic animals and 72 percent of its supply of aquatic plants. World aquaculture has grown dramatically in the last 50 years. From a production of less than 1 million tonnes in the early 1950s, production in 2006 was reported to have risen to 51.7 million tonnes, with a value of us$78.8 billion. This means that aquaculture continues to grow more rapidly than other animal food-producing sectors. While capture fisheries production stopped growing in around mid-1980, the aquaculture sector has maintained an average annual growth rate of 8.7 percent worldwide (excluding China, 6.5 percent) since 1970. Annual growth rates in world aquaculture production between 2004 and 2006 were 6.1 percent in volume terms and 11.0 percent in value terms. if aquatic plants are included, world aquaculture production in 2006 was 66.7 million tonnes and worth us$85.9 billion. In 2006, countries in the Asia and the Pacific regions accounted for 89 percent of production by quantity and 77 percent of value. Of the world total, China is reported to produce 67 percent of the total quantity and 49 percent of the total value of aquaculture production . an analysis of production by region for the period 1970–2006 shows that growth
has not been uniform .The Latin America and the Caribbean region shows the highest average annual growth (22.0 percent), followed by the Near East region (20.0 percent) and the Africa region (12.7 percent). China’s aquaculture production increased at an average annual rate of 11.2 percent in the same period. However, recently, China’s growth rate has declined to 5.8 percent from 17.3 percent in the 1980s and 14.3 percent in the 1990s. Similarly, production growth in Europe and North America has slowed substantially to about 1 percent per year since 2000. In France and Japan, countries that used to lead aquaculture development, production has fallen in the last decade. It is apparent that, while aquaculture output will continue to grow, the rate of increase may be moderate in the near future. Most aquaculture production of fish, crustaceans and mollusks continues to come from inland waters (61 percent by quantity and
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53 percent by value). An allocation of aquaculture production by aquatic environments shows that the freshwater environment contributes 58 percent by quantity and 48 percent by value. Aquaculture in the marine environment contributes 34 percent of production and 36 percent of total value. While much marine production is high-value finfish, production in this environment also consists of a large amount of relatively low-priced mussels and oysters. Although brackish-water production represented only 8 percent of production in 2006, it contributed 16 percent of the total value, reflecting the prominence of high value crustaceans and finfish. While production from brackish waters shows the highest growth in terms of quantity since 2000 (11.6 percent per year), the increase in value has stagnated at 5.9 percent. In the same period, the average annual increases in aquatic products from the freshwater and marine water environments have been 6.5 and 5.4 percent in terms of quantity and 7.8 and 8.3 percent in value terms, respectively. in 2006, more than half of global aquaculture production was freshwater finfish. Output amounted to 27.8 million tonnes, worth us$29.5 billion. In the same year, mollusks accounted for the second-largest share, 14.1 million tonnes (27 percent of total production), worth us$11.9 billion. The much smaller amounts of crustaceans – 4.5 million tonnes – were worth significantly more: us$17.95 billion. the status of the fishing fleet
In 2007, fao obtained data on national fishing fleets from 97 countries (slightly fewer than half of those catching fish) either through direct reporting or through disseminated statistics. The quality of the data varies widely from quite fragmented records to consistent and continuous statistics over several years. Some data reported to fao are based on national registers and/or other administrative records. However, these registers often do not cover small boats, especially those used in inland waters. such craft are often not subject to compulsory registration. Even if they are, where the registers concerned are managed by provincial or municipal authorities, they are easily overlooked in reporting at the national level. In addition, registers and administrative records often include non-operational units. Taking these factors into consideration, the currently available information has only limited value for monitoring and detecting global trends in fishing capacity, and the figures reported in this section should only be considered indicative where they represent global trends. quite a large number of non-motorized boats are engaged in fishing operations, usually inshore or on inland waters. For the reasons already described, information about this category of vessel is generally lacking. In the past two years, very little information has been received about the non-motorized fleets. Therefore, there has been no attempt to update the estimate made when preparing The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006. The number of engine-powered fishing vessels is estimated to have been about 2.1 million in 2006, with almost 70 percent of them in Asia. Of the remaining vessels, most were reported to be fishing in Africa, followed by Europe, the Near East, and Latin America and the Caribbean. As almost 90 percent of the motorized fishing vessels in the world are less than 12 m in length, such vessels dominate everywhere, particularly in Africa, Asia and the Near East. The fishing fleets in the Pacific region and in Oceania, Europe and North America tend to consist of vessels that are, on average, slightly larger. This characteristic is confirmed by the distribution of industrialized fleets (vessels of more than 100 gt,
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percentage of aquaculture vs capture in total production the decline in marine fish catch has been largely offset by increased aquaculture production, which grew from 2 million tons in 1980 to nearly 16 million tons in 2002. policy makers and fisheries managers often see it as an alternative to marine fishing, as it has the potential to take pressure off wild stocks and also provide economic opportunities.
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24% pig feed
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uses of fishmeal an increasing number of new aquaculture operations specialize in fish that eat fish, which require supplies of high-calorie feed. aquaculture currently consumes more than 81 percent of the prey fish captured and turned into fish oil, and approximately half of the fish that are captured for fish meal. the remaining prey fish are used in agriculture and also to a lesser degree pet food and pharmaceuticals
fishmeal uses
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roughly more than 24 m in length, extracted from the Lloyd’s Fairplay database), which shows them as being rather evenly distributed among Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. correspondingly, there are a higher proportion of vessels of more than 100 ct in the Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America regions than in the Africa and Asia regions. This situation is reflected in the estimated average annual catches per vessel, which are lower in the Asia and Africa regions than elsewhere. The numbers of both fishing vessels and fish carriers have stayed around the same level in the last ten years. While the size of the fishing fleet has declined slightly in terms of ct, the fleet of fish carriers in 2006 had fallen to less than half that of 1990. This implies that recently built fish carriers have been much smaller than their predecessors. In addition, scrapped vessels have on the whole been much larger (fishing vessels at 1 100 ct and fish carriers at 5 000 ct) than those built to replace them. These new vessels have averaged about 540 ct for fishing vessels and 590 ct for fish carriers. The average size of newly built vessels has remained relatively stable with some fluctuations in the last ten years. There have been suggestions that the recent rapid rise in fuel prices will increase the use of fish carriers in an attempt to cut overall fuel costs by reducing the time fishing vessels spend traveling to and from the fishing grounds. However, the recent change in the fleet size of fish carriers does not seem to support this view. The number of new fishing vessels being built declined substantially in the late 1980s, when it fell to about half of the previous level. It stayed at about this level until 2001 but has since declined substantially. Currently, the average age of operational fishing vessels is 27.4 years, and that for fish carriers is 22.9 years. the issues of overcapacity in fishing fleets and their reduction to the levels that should be in balance with long-term sustainable exploitation of resources have received global attention in the past two decades. Many countries have adopted policies to limit the growth of national fishing capacity in order to protect aquatic resources and make fishing economically viable for the harvesting enterprises. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006 reported on attempts by China and the European Union (eu) to limit and control the capacity of their fishing fleets. The “Entry-Exit” scheme, briefly described in that edition, remains in force for eu members. The European Economic Area (eea) reported declining fleets for eu members in the three years following its introduction in 2003. However, for eea 18,9 the rates of decline in number of vessels – about 3.2 percent annually – seem unaffected by the “Entry-Exit” scheme. However, a decline in gt terms has occurred. The annual rate of decline increased from 0.8 percent in the period 1998–2003 to about 2.1 percent thereafter. The enlargement of the eu by ten countries10 in 2004 made a larger number of fishing vessels subject to the “Entry-Exit” scheme. The fishing fleets of these new members have shown a faster fall in fishing capacity than those of the original 15 members.11 The combined fleet shrank by 3.1 percent annually in terms of numbers of vessels and by 3.5 percent annually in gt terms in the period 2004–06. China’s five-year programme to de-license and scrap 30 000 fishing vessels ended at the beginning of 2008. It is unclear how many vessels were scrapped under the programme. Whatever its achievements, it appears that the fleet of commercial vessels in China continues to expand. Official data record an annual increase in vessel numbers of about 3.5 percent for the period 2002–06.
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the status of fishery resources
The global state of exploitation of the world marine fishery resources has tended to vary, with some trends in the observed exploitation categories. While the proportion of underexploited or moderately exploited stocks declined linearly from 40 percent in the mid-1970s to 20 percent in 2007, the proportion of fully exploited stocks remained steady at about 50 percent. The proportion of overexploited, depleted or recovering stocks appears to have stabilized at between 25 and 30 percent since the mid-1990s. The overall examination of the state of stocks and groups of stocks for which information is available confirms that the proportions of overexploited, depleted and recovering stocks have remained relatively stable in the last 10–15 years, after the noticeable increasing trends observed in the 1970s and 1980s. It is estimated that, in 2007, about one-fifth of the stock groups monitored by fao were underexploited (2 percent) or moderately exploited (18 percent) and could perhaps produce more. Slightly more than half of the stocks (52 percent) were fully exploited and, therefore, producing catches at or close to their maximum sustainable limits, with no room for further expansion. The other 28 percent were either overexploited (19 percent), depleted (8 percent) or recovering from depletion (1 percent) and, thus, yielding less than their maximum potential owing to excess fishing pressure in the past, with no possibilities in the short or medium term of further expansion and with an increased risk of further declines and a need for rebuilding. most of the stocks of the top ten species, which account in total for about 30 percent of the world marine capture fisheries production in terms of quantity are fully exploited or overexploited and, therefore, cannot be expected to produce major increases in catches. This is the case for: anchoveta (Engraulis ringens), with two main stocks in the Southeast Pacific that are fully exploited and overexploited; Alaska pollock (Theragra chalcogramma), which is fully exploited in the North Pacific; blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou), which is fully exploited in the Northeast Atlantic; Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), with several stocks that are fully exploited, some that are depleted and some that are underexploited because of market conditions; Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus), which is fully exploited in the Northeast Pacific; Chilean jack mackerel (Trachurus murphyi), which is fully exploited and overexploited in the Southeast Pacific; and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares), which is fully exploited in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and probably moderately to fully exploited in the Indian Ocean. Some stocks of skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) are fully exploited while some are still reported as moderately exploited, particularly in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where they could offer some limited possibilities for further expansion of fisheries production. However, this may not be desirable as it is nearly impossible to increase skipjack catches without negatively affecting bigeye and yellowfin tunas. Some limited possibilities for expansion are also offered by a few stocks of chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus), which are moderately exploited in the Eastern Pacific, while other stocks are already fully exploited. The largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) is considered overexploited in the main fishing area in the Northwest Pacific, but its state of exploitation is unknown elsewhere. the percentage of stocks fully exploited, overexploited or depleted varies greatly by area. The major fishing areas with the highest proportions (71−80 percent) of fully exploited stocks are the Northeast Atlantic, Western Indian Ocean and North-
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world fishing fleet by vessel type (thousands of tons) the tonnage of all types of commercial fishing vessels has steadily increased from when records have been kept and more greatly increased in the 1970s and 1980s before limits were imposed due to fishery collapse. thus tonnage of fishing vessels has leveled off slightly beginning in the 1990s.
west Pacific. The proportion of overexploited, depleted and recovering stocks varies between 20 and 52 percent in all areas except in the Northwest Pacific, Western Central Pacific and Eastern Central Pacific, where it is 10 percent or less. Relatively high proportions (20 percent or more) of underexploited or moderately exploited stocks can be found in the Eastern Indian Ocean, Western Central Pacific, Eastern Central Pacific, Southwest Pacific and Southern Ocean, and for some species of tunas. four fao major fishing areas account for more than 10 percent each and collectively produced about 66 percent of the world marine catches in 2006. The Northwest Pacific is the most productive, with a total catch of 21.6 million tonnes (26 percent of total marine catches), followed by the Southeast Pacific, with a total catch of 12.0 million tonnes (15 percent), the Western Central Pacific with 11.2 million tones (14 percent) and the Northeast Atlantic, with 9.1 million tonnes (11 percent). In the Northwest Pacific, small pelagics are the most abundant category, with the Japanese anchovy providing large catches, although there were signs of decline in 2005 and 2006 as compared with catches of more than 2 million tonnes in 2003. Other important contributors to the total catch are the largehead hairtail, considered overexploited, and the Alaska pollock and chub mackerel, both considered fully exploited. Squids, cuttlefish and octopuses are important species yielding 1.4 million tonnes. in the southeast pacific, total catches have oscillated around 12 million tonnes in the last five years. There has been no major change in the status of stocks since 2004. The stock of anchoveta has recovered from the severe El Niùo event of 1997–98 and is considered fully exploited in most of the area. Two other important pelagic stocks, the Chilean jack mackerel and in particular the South American pilchard, remain in a decadal cycle of natural low abundance, producing a fraction of the record catches observed
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between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. The stocks of South Pacific hake remain under heavy fishing pressure with no sign of recovery. the western central pacific is the most productive fishing area of the tropical regions, with total catches up about 3 percent on 2004. Tunas and tuna-like species make up about 24 percent of the total for this fishing area, with most species assessed as either fully exploited or moderately to fully exploited. The status of other species groups is highly uncertain. This region is highly diverse, its fisheries are mostly multispecies, and detailed data for reliable assessments are usually not available for most stocks. Analysis of survey information for some countries in the region (Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam) have shown considerable degradation and overfishing of coastal stocks, most dramatically in the Gulf of Thailand and along the east coast of Malaysia. in the Northeast Atlantic, catches of blue whiting have stabilized at about 2 million tonnes per year since 2003, and the stock is considered fully exploited. Fishing mortality has been reduced in cod, sole and plaice. Cod remains depleted in the North Sea and in the Faeroes, but other stocks are healthier and considered fully exploited. Several stocks of haddock have shown spectacular increases in biomass since 2000, fisheries have grown and most stocks are now considered fully exploited. Saithe stocks have also increased since 2000. Some sand eel and capelin stocks have become depleted, while fishing for shrimp seems to have ceased in some areas. A record high has been reached in total landings in the Eastern Indian Ocean, with a total of 5.8 million tonnes, a 5-percent increase compared with 2004. The category “marine fishes nonidentified”, representing 50 percent of the total catches in the area, accounts for most of this increase. “Miscellaneous pelagic fishes” (including Indian mackerels and various carangids) made up 11 percent of the catches and “miscellaneous coastal fishes” (croakers, ponyfishes,
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average depth reached by commercial fishing the average depth of commercial fishing has steadily increased over the past six decades. this increase is due to a combination of factors including improved technology, and decrease in available fisheries, resulting in the need to search deeper waters.
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four fao major fishing areas account for more than 10% each and collectively produced about 66% of the world marine catches in 2006
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sea catfishes, etc.) 10 percent. Tuna catches in 2006 were slightly below the six-year (2000–05) average of 450 000 tonnes. while catches of most groups show either a rising trend or are fluctuating slightly with no clear trend, there are indications that parts of this fishing area could be overfished, with the situation being aggravated by increasing stress from pollution, sedimentation, modified river runoffs and intensive coastal aquaculture. There have been several changes in the status of the stocks in the Southeast Atlantic since the last full assessment made in 2004. The important hake resources remain fully exploited to overexploited although there are signs of some recovery in the deepwater hake stock (Merluccius paradoxus) off South Africa. The status of the coastal fishes remains fully exploited or depleted. A significant change concerns the Southern African pilchard, which was at a very high biomass and estimated to be fully exploited in 2004, but which now, under unfavorable environmental conditions, has declined considerably in abundance and is overexploited throughout the region. In contrast, the status of Southern African anchovy has improved from fully exploited to fully to moderately exploited, and Whitehead’s round herring is underexploited to moderately exploited. The condition of Cape horse mackerel has deteriorated, particularly off Namibia, where it is currently overexploited.
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The condition of the Perlemoen abalone stock has deteriorated, driven heavily by illegal fishing, and it is currently overfished and probably depleted. overall, 80 percent of the 523 selected world fish stocks for which assessment information is available are reported as fully exploited or overexploited (or depleted and recovering from depletion). It should be noted that the status of fully exploited is World review of fisheries and aquaculture 35 not undesirable provided it is the result of an effective and precautionary management approach. Nevertheless, the combined percentage reinforces earlier observations that the maximum wild capture fisheries potential from the world’s oceans has probably been reached. Therefore, a more cautious and closely controlled approach to development and management of world fisheries is still required. As reported in The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2006, the situation seems more critical for some highly migratory, straddling and other fishery resources that are exploited solely or partially in the high seas. An example highlighted in that earlier edition included the state of highly migratory oceanic sharks, with more than half of the stocks for which information is available being listed as overexploited or depleted. In the case of straddling stocks and of other high seas fishery resources, nearly two-thirds of the stocks for which the state of exploitation can be determined were classified as overexploited or depleted. These high seas fishery resources constitute only a small fraction of the world fishery resources, but they can be considered key indicators of the state of a major part of the ocean ecosystem. The United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement entered into force in 2001. It is providing a legal basis for management measures that are now being introduced and that are expected to benefit species fished on the high seas in the medium to long term. However, further rapid progress in implementation is necessary if the ocean ecosystem is to be safeguarded and protected fully. inland fisheries
By landing more than 10 million tonnes in 2006, inland fisheries contributed 11 percent of global capture fisheries production. Although the amount may be small in comparison with marine fisheries, fish and other aquatic animals from inland waters remain essential and irreplaceable elements in the diets of both rural and urban people in much of the world, especially in developing countries. However, for demographic and cultural reasons, there are significant differences in the level of exploitation among the major geographical regions. Although global landings from inland fisheries have grown continuously, there are few examples of collapsing fisheries and a number of fish stocks, especially in Latin America, remain lightly exploited. Therefore, adopting a precautionary approach, the fisheries could be developed further. Although statistics are improving in some countries, collecting accurate information on inland fisheries can be extremely costly. Moreover, many public administrations still do not collect such information or make assessments of the status of inland fishery resources. The very nature of inland fisheries makes assessment of their status extremely difficult. In addition, inland fisheries practiced for sustenance or gain often take place in remote areas and are carried out by the poorer sectors of society. catches are frequently not recorded by species or not recorded at all. Catch statistics are generally inadequate for use as a measure of stock status. Therefore, providing accurate statements on the status of inland fishery resources on a global or even regional level remains a challenge. Noting this and in order to enhance
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knowledge and awareness of the sector, fao invited case studies of a number of inland fisheries in various parts of the world. These studies were also meant to highlight some of the most crucial issues in ensuring the sustainability of such fisheries. The five case studies presented below all confirm that inland fisheries are highly complex, and that, where ecosystem processes remain largely undisturbed, stock dynamics are basically controlled by environmental processes and factors external to the fisheries, such as natural fluctuations in climate or flood patterns. Often, the yields track intra-annual and interannual variations in nutrient inputs (whether natural or resulting from pollution), although response times depend on the life cycle of the fish. Therefore, the perception that fishing pressure is the only or main driver is mistaken; and fish stock assessments based on steady-state assumptions can be highly misleading, both in the interpretation of trends and in the use of fishery assessment models. However, anthropogenic ecosystem impacts in the form of species introductions, pollution, habitat fragmentation and changes in the flood cycle reduce the resilience of almost all fish stocks to fishing pressure, and in the future, the fisheries should be managed with all of these factors in mind. fish consumption
Fish consumption has undergone major changes in the past four decades. World apparent per capita fish consumption has been increasing steadily, from an average of 9.9 kg in the 1960s to 11.5 kg in the 1970s, 12.5 kg in the 1980s, 14.4 kg in the 1990s and reaching 16.4 kg in 2005. However, this increase has not been uniform across regions. In the last three decades, per capita fish supply has remained almost static in ssa. In contrast, it has risen dramatically in East Asia (mainly in China) and in the Near East/North Africa region. China has accounted for most of the world growth; its estimated share of world fish production increased from 21 percent in 1994 to 35 percent in 2005, when Chinese per capita fish supply was about 26.1 kg. If China is excluded, per capita fish supply is about 14.0 kg, slightly higher than the average values of the mid-1990s, and lower than the maximum levels registered in the 1980s (14.6 kg). Preliminary estimates for 2006 indicate a slight increase in global per capita fish supply to about 16.7 kg. global increases in fish consumption tallies with trends in food consumption
in general. Per capita food consumption has been rising in the last few decades. Nutritional standards have shown positive long-term trends, with worldwide increases in the average global calorie supply per person and in the quantity of proteins per person. However, many countries continue to face food shortages and nutrient inadequacies, and major inequalities exist in access to food, mainly owing to very weak economic growth and rapid population expansion. The majority of undernourished people in the world live in Asia and the Pacific, with the highest prevalence of undernourishment found in ssa. There are large variations across countries and regions of the world in the amount of total fish supply for human consumption, reflecting different eating habits and traditions, availability of fish and other foods, prices, socio-economic levels, and seasons. Per capita apparent fish consumption can vary from less than 1 kg per capita in one country to more than 100 kg in another. Differences are also evident within countries, with consumption usually higher in coastal areas. the driving force behind the enormous surge in the consumption of animal products is a combination of population growth, rising incomes and increasing urbanization. Economic development and rising
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incomes usually lead to advances in the availability and quality of food, better overall nutritional status and the elimination of food shortages. This is normally accompanied by improvements in the supply chain of food, that is, in the production, processing and marketing sectors. Food distribution has undergone dramatic changes. Several developing countries, especially in Asia and Latin America, have experienced a rapid expansion in the number of supermarkets, which are not only targeting higher-income consumers but also lower and middle-income consumers. Thus, they are emerging as a major force in developing countries, offering consumers a wider choice, reduced seasonality and lower prices for food products, and often-safer food. a major force in global food demand is urbanization. Growing urbanization usually modifies dietary patterns, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and changes the lifestyles of individuals. There is an increasing trend towards a global uniformity of urban consumer behavior. Compared with the less-diversified diets of rural communities, city dwellers tend to have a more varied diet, richer in higherenergy foods, with more proteins from meat, poultry, fish and milk and fewer carbohydrates and fibers. Furthermore, urbanization stimulates development in infrastructure, including cold chains (which enable trade in perishable goods). In its 2007 Revision of World Urbaniza-
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anchoveta
alaska pollock
skipjack tuna
atlantic herring
blue whiting
chub mackerel
chilean jack mackerel
japanese anchovy
largehead hairtail
yellowfin tuna
0
2m
4m
6m
8m
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top 10 fisheries by species (2008)in millions of tons this group of species, which represent more than 30 percent of the total global marine catch, consists of five small pelagic species (anchoveta, atlantic herring, chub and chilean jack mackerels, and japanese anchovy), two tunas (skipjack and yellowfin), two low-value gadiformes (alaska pollock and blue whiting), and the largehead hairtail, a bentho-pelagic species for which 90 percent of the catches are reported by china.
tion Prospects, the United Nations Population Division indicated that the world population would reach a landmark in 2008. For the first time in history, the urban population would equal the rural population of the world and, from then on, the majority of the world population would be urban. Nevertheless, major parts of the world remain largely rural. In Africa and Asia, six out of ten people still live in rural areas. The world’s urban population is expected to nearly double by 2050, increasing from 3.3 billion in 2007 to 6.4 billion in 2050, with virtually all of the growth being absorbed by the urban areas of the less developed regions. the above-mentioned trends in fish consumption are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. Population and income growth, together with urbanization and dietary diversification, are expected to create additional demand and to continue to shift the composition of food consumption towards a growing share of animal products in developing countries. In industrialized countries, food demand is expected to grow only moderately and, in determining demand for food products, issues such as safety, quality, environmental concerns and animal welfare will probably be more important in the future than issues of price and income changes. governance and policy
The world’s oceans support economic activities on a vast scale, and the need to rehabilitate and protect their common wealth and productivity has led the international community to focus intensely on how oceans are used and governed. A critical component of that equation is sound fisheries governance, especially in terms of achieving long-term sustainable manage-
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average shrimp bycatch
total catch [7lb]
bycatch [6lb]
shrimp [1lb]
the word “bycatch” refers to the portion of marine life caught that was not targeted. it may include low-value species but also vast tonnage of young or undersized fish of valuable commercial species. almost 25% of all the fish pulled from the sea never make it to the market. an average of 27 million tonnes of unwanted fish are thrown back each year, and a large portion does not survive.
gillnet [1.9%]
longline [3.9%]
trap [4.5%]
midwater trawl [5.1%]
dredge [5.3%] bycatch by gear type (2004) bycatch affects many species and the damage differs depending on the type of fishing gear used. beyond the obvious impacts to marine life, many gear types can also dramatically alter marine habitats. in particular, damage to the seafloor from bottom fishing gear is 150 times the land area that is lost to clear cutting. bottom trawls crush and expose marine organisms, reducing the structural diversity of the sea bottom.
hook & line [7.2%]
bottom trawls [25%]
shrimp trawls [50%]
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world apparent per capita fish consumption has been increasing steadily, from an average of 9.9 kg in the 1960s to 16.4 kg in 2005.
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ment of living marine resources, a precondition for maintaining their social and economic value. Intrinsically linked to this goal is the need to ensure greater responsibility and accountability by all individuals and private companies involved in the harvesting, processing and marketing of fish. More broadly, and also taking account of the potential for endemic corruption in resource-based industries, sustainable management outcomes (including poverty reduction and alleviation, improved food security, stronger economic development and growth, and greater access to public services) depend to a large extent on concurrent improvements in public governance. there has been only limited progress in the implementation of measures interalia to mainstream precautionary and ecosystem approaches to fisheries, eliminate bycatches and discards, regulate bottom-trawl fisheries, manage shark fisheries and deal with iuu fishing in a comprehensive manner. Each of these issues has social, economic and political dimensions, and the implementation of measures to tackle them effectively requires adequately trained human resources, well-structured and resilient institutions, and financial support. a sharp focus on capacity building for fisheries management is a priority for both developing and developed countries. In a globalizing fisheries world, there is increasing interdependence between developing and developed states. With respect to the implementation of international fisheries instruments (e.g. the 1995 United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement), it is recognized that there is an element of self-interest in the provision of development assistance. This is because the instruments face a reasonable probability of floundering if they are not embraced widely by countries and if there is not a degree of implementation equivalency among parties to agreements. Principally for these reasons, most of the instruments concluded since the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development contain capacity-building provisions. a further and important reason to promote capacity building exists where regional cooperation and collaboration underpin the implementation of agreements. In these cases, capacity-poor countries become the weak links in the implementation process. For example, the adoption of harmonized and minimum standards for monitoring, control and surveillance (mcs) and regional port state measures envisages that they be implemented by countries in unison and with a similar degree of vigor. A failure to achieve fully coordinated implementation creates implementation loopholes, thereby undermining regional cooperation and the originally intended positive outcomes. bycatch and discards
In their various forms, bycatches can have significant consequences for populations, food webs and ecosystems. In recent decades, a broad-based public consensus has developed around the view that bycatch should be minimized to levels approaching insignificance. This view, as reflected in worldwide legislation and agreements, demonstrates the widely-held belief that discarded portions of fishery catches represent an unacceptable waste of natural resources. Although no detailed estimate of bycatch is available, a crude estimate suggests that it could be more than 20 million tonnes globally (equivalent to 23 percent of marine landings) and growing. decreases in abundance of traditional species, falling catch revenues, new markets for non-traditional species, increased demand for raw material for animal feeds and changes in regulations to prohibit discarding are all factors that may contribute to
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increased landings of non-target species. However, global awareness of the bycatch problem has produced results. Turtle mortalities have been reduced through: (i) wider use of turtle excluder devices in shrimp trawl fisheries (these devices are a prerequisite for shrimp exports to the United States of America; and (ii) the promotion and use of circle hooks in pelagic longline fisheries. Although economically and ecologically important, less-charismatic bycatch species (including juveniles) have yet to be treated with the same intensity. In many fisheries, they remain a source of unregulated and unreported fishing mortality. Global awareness on bycatch has also benefited seabirds. The ipoa and npoa for seabirds (ipoa/npoa s) have stimulated improvements in seabird-avoidance techniques in commercial longline fisheries. However, while unreported and unobserved bycatch is a component of iuu fishing, the ipoa on iuu has tended to focus on illegal fishing. It may be that progress in managing bycatch species and reducing discards would be best served through a separate and focused international initiative. as globally there are few management regimes that regulate and report on
retained or discarded bycatch species, there is no way of knowing the true magnitude of the problem. Making all retained species a component of specific fisheries management arrangements remains a priority for those pursuing an ecosystem approach to fisheries. The lack of comprehensive monitoring programmes to assess bycatches and to integrate them into population and multispecies models seriously impedes a full understanding of bycatch consequences and the efficacy of experimental measures being tested for their amelioration. trade and fisheries subsidies
New disciplines governing the use of subsidies in the fisheries sector are being negotiated in the wto. This follows the wto Ministerial Declaration mandating participants “to clarify and improve wto disciplines on fisheries subsidies, taking into account the importance of this sector to developing countries” (paragraph 28, 20 November 2001). Much progress has been achieved since the negotiations were launched. In November 2007, the Chair of the group negotiating fisheries subsidies tabled a Chair’s draft text. The Chair’s draft proposes a broad ban on subsidies that contribute to overfishing and overcapacity. It also proposes general exceptions to the prohibitions for all wto members and special and differential treatment (s&dt) for developing countries. However, the general exceptions and s&dt are conditional on wto members having in place a fishery management system designed to prevent overfishing. The Chair’s text proposes that wto members who wish to grant a subsidy that would fall under the general exception or s&dt provisions must notify fao of their management system. It is proposed that fao then undertake a peer review of the management system prior to the granting of the subsidy. However, at this stage, it should be noted that the negotiations in the wto are still under way. When the fisheries subsidies negotiations have been concluded, the agreed text will clarify fao’s intended role and the nature of the peer review. following the accession of China and Vietnam to the wto in 2001 and 2007, respectively, all major fish producing, importing and exporting countries are members of the organization, with the exception of the Russian Federation. Countries whose accession is expected to be ratified in 2008 are Cape Verde and Ukraine. Parallel to the increase in wto membership, a number of bilateral trade agreements with strong relevance to fish trade have entered into force. The full impact of such
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fresh produce
freezing
curing
developed
developing
canning
non-food purposes
0
10m
20m
30m
40m
50m
60m
utilization of production (2008) in developed countries, innovation is mainly focused on increased convenience foods and a wider variety mainly in fresh, frozen, breaded, smoked or canned forms. in many developing countries, processing is still focused on traditional, labour-intensive methods like filleting, salting, canning, drying and even fermentation.
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bilateral agreements and regional trade agreements, in addition to (or in substitution of) broader multilateral agreements, remains to be seen. One trade agreement of significant relevance for trade in fish and fishery products is being negotiated at the regional level between six African, Caribbean and Pacific regions and the eu. The intention was to arrive at regional Economic Partnership Agreements (epas) and make them operational from January 2008. The deadline was important, as the waiver granted by the wto to the preferences in the Cotonou Agreement expired at the end of 2007. However, by the deadline, only one region, the Caribbean, had concluded a full epa with the eu. whereas
the
least
developed
countries (ldcs) from all regions continue to benefit from free market-access preferences to the eu market under the Everything But Arms initiative, this is not the case for non-ldcs. In total, 35 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries had entered into full or interim agreements by the end of 2007. Some of these agreements also include chapters on fisheries development and cooperation. Countries that are neither ldcs nor signatories to interim or full agreements can continue to export to the eu market under the eu’s Generalised System of Preferences. However, this will lead to higher import duties for their products from 2008 onwards.
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a crude estimate suggests that bycatch could be more than 20 million tons globally
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future of fish the twentieth century was a time of technological revolution for fisheries,
faster boats, bigger nets, stronger materials, and better weather forecasts, visuals beamed from the sea floor. But for all their science and gadgetry, today’s fishing captains are no more successful than their nineteenth-century forebears. They are chasing resources in decline, and each new technology presses nature harder, ratcheting down populations to new lows. Every advance into previously unfished terrain shrinks the last refuges for fish. The battle between people and fish has become very sophisticated and extremely uneven. We have left no place for fish to hide. Left unchecked, this arms race will have no winners. Fishers will put themselves out of business when their target species run out. The beauty and plenitude of the oceans that has inspired countless generations of humanity will have been ruined. But it doesn’t have to end like that. extrapolating the current downward trend suggests that availability of fish will fall to around 70 percent of today’s level by 2050. At a time when people more than ever appreciate the health benefits of eating fish, supply is dwindling. Nutritionists from the World Health Organization recommend we eat 200 to 300 grams (7 to 11 ounces) of fish per week. Today’s world fish landings only barely meet this need for people alive today, although in reality much of the fish caught is fed to livestock and many people are denied fish protein. However, if world landings continue to decline as predicted, and taking into account projected human population growth from six billion to around ten billion people by 2050, there will be enough fish to meet this need for only half of all people. Aggregate catch figures, as gloomy as they appear, conceal the full scale of carnage in the sea. The pageants of local losses played out in previous chapters can be sketched as generalities on the world stage. fisheries first target large and high-value species—generally predators—moving to other areas or switching to the next most profitable species as stocks decline. Fishers respond to falling catches by escalating fishing power, developing ever better ways of finding fish and extracting them from their dwindling refuges. Rising fish prices and government subsidies prop up ailing fisheries as stocks fall. The effects are loss of predators and a shift toward catching species we once shunned, termed “fishing down the food web.” Ecosystems where once legions of sharks, porpoises, and seabirds pursued unimaginable numbers of smaller fish have been stripped of their predators, and the smaller animals have become our prey. Daniel Pauly, of the University of British Columbia, who first described the phenomenon, memorably said that we are eating today what our grandparents used as bait. The prime fish of their day dined on the flesh of other fish, while many of the animals we eat now have fed on plankton or scratch a living sifting “dirt” on the seabed. Today we pursue prawns, crab, and lobster where once hungry cod held sway. We vacuum sand eels, capelin, and squid from the sea, bypassing the animals that once consumed them and were in turn eaten by people. Pauly warned that in due course we will end up consuming plankton directly, drawn from seas without fish. recent research has given us a better understanding of unexploited population sizes, which often turn out to be much higher than were assumed by fisheries scientists. Historical impacts on fish populations have been far greater than most scientists believed. Today, many fish stocks languish at between a tenth and a thousandth of their unexploited numbers. Even Thomas Huxley would be forced to conclude that the great fisheries of the world have not just come under the heel of humanity; they have
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[1] fishing
[2] pollution
human expansion
altered ecosystems
[3] habitat destruction
[4] introductions
[5] climate change
human actions altering marine ecosystems while fishing is usually the first step in the historical sequence of human disturbances, it must be viewed within the context of other following steps in order to accurately address solutions to overfishing. the four succeeding steps in human disturbance can now occur independant of overfishing and must be addressed in combination with resolutions designed to stem overfishing.
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decline in biomass of marine mammals large mammal populations are compatible with high fish biomasses; if we now don’t have high fish biomasses, it is because of fishing. the overall biomass of marine mammals may now slowly recover from past massacres but all indications show that they remain severely depleted
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biomass (10^6t) 80
40
1800
1850
1900
1950
2000
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nearly been crushed by it. This systematic underestimation of pristine populations has led to estimates of target population sizes needed to achieve maximum sustainable yield being set too low, thus leading to a greater risk of population collapses. There is an old adage that doctors bury their mistakes. But fishery managers and politicians have long taken comfort from the idea that mistakes in fisheries are simple to reverse. Ease back on fishing pressure, the surplus yield curve says, and populations will rebound and catches rise once more. In some fisheries this has proven true. The overfished Pacific halibut, for example, recovered in the early twentieth century when an international agreement was reached to scale back fishing effort. Northern populations of herring bounced back after the 1970s moratorium in Europe. Peruvian anchoveta struggled back after a spectacular collapse in the early 1970s and again in the mid-1980s. Striped bass rallied in eastern North America in the 1980s. But for every case of recovery, there are several counterexamples. The Baltic Scanian herring disappeared hundreds of years ago and has never come back. North Atlantic halibut, once a mainstay of line fishers, crashed in the nineteenth century and has been a bit player ever since. Nassau grouper once held sway on Caribbean reefs, but in most countries are scarcely seen today. The days when Gulf of California waters boiled with spawning runs of totoaba are over, and the majestic bluefin tuna has lost its crown in the Atlantic. Jeff Hutchings, from Canada’s Dalhousie University, looked for evidence of recovery in ninety different commercially exploited fish populations after they had declined by between 13 and 90 percent. Only a handful made a full recovery when fishing was reduced. He looked at long-term recovery success for twenty-five populations for which there were at least fifteen years of postdecline data available. Only 12 percent made a full recovery, all of them small, open-water species from the herring family. 40% showed no recovery at all. steps for the future
To recover the world’s fisheries we must change the way we think about and manage the oceans. For much of the last hundred years, fisheries management has been conducted as an arms race between fishers and regulators. Regulators make laws to restrain fishing; fishers think up ways around them. In most places, fishers have kept one step ahead of regulators, and fish populations have fallen. Ultimately, if fishers win the race with regulators, their industry will selfdestruct. The best that managers can claim in most places is that they are slowing the pace of suicide. Fisheries will become sustainable only when we set more modest catch targets and fish in ways that have less impact on fish habitats and other marine species. The needed reforms do not involve complicated science, and people do not need degrees from learned institutions to understand them. they are straightforward, commonsense reforms that can be summarized in seven points: (1) reduce present fishing capacity; (2) eliminate risk-prone decision making; (3) eliminate catch quotas and instead implement controls on the amount of fishing; (4) require people to keep what they catch; (5) require fishers to use gear modified to reduce bycatch; (6) ban or restrict the most damaging catching methods; and (7) implement extensive networks of marine reserves that are off-limits to fishing. the first reform needed is to fish less intensively. One of the early advances in fisheries science was based on observations of the evolution of fisheries over time. Where there is no restriction on access, people will pile into the fishing industry as long as there is profit to be made. They only stop when the profit
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made by the average fisher is nil. Today, most industrial fisheries have limited access based on licensing and quota allocations. But fishing capacity can rise to excessive levels through technical innovations, even without the addition of new boats or people. This means that fishing capacity in almost all fisheries, even where entry is regulated, is greater than necessary or desirable to secure sustainable levels of catch. With fewer boats, you could catch the same amount for less effort, and crews would all make a better living. Cutting the amount of fishing is the first reform needed to fisheries management. in 2002, it was estimated that fishing capacity in the North Sea was 40 percent greater than that needed. One of the main planks of Europe’s Common Fisheries Policy is to reduce fishing effort by decommissioning vessels, paying fishers to scrap their boats. This approach can be traced back to the 1930s when the British government bought out vessels from their ailing herring fishery. Decommissioning is not the perfect solution to overcapacity, though. The first to sell up are the worst fishers and those with the oldest, least seaworthy boats. Furthermore, today companies often own and operate fleets of many boats. By decommissioning their oldest vessels, they can reinvest the money and upgrade the remainder with new gear and electronics. Reducing fishing effort, although an important step will not solve all
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fao recommended fishing industry reforms to curb and end overfishiing (1) reduce present fishing capacity (2) eliminate risk-prone decision making (3) eliminate catch quotas and instead implement controls on fishing amount (4) require people to keep what they catch (5) require fishers to use gear modified to reduce bycatch (6) ban or restrict the most environmentally damaging catching methods (7) implement extensive networks of marine reserves off-limits to fishing.
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problems. The second reform needed is to eliminate risk-prone decision making. This means cutting politicians out of the decision-making process on allowable catches and making choices based on the best available science. The timescales of politics and fishery management are very different. Fishery ministers are a here-today-gone-tomorrow bunch. Few see their brief as any more than a pit stop on the way to greater things, the trade and industry secretary or foreign minister, for example. Decisions they make while in office are taken mainly to please their constituents in the short term. Any adverse consequences those decisions might have will be left for the next minister or the one after to answer for. By contrast, fisheries sustainability is by definition a long-term endeavor. Forgoing catches today may yield benefits only in five or ten years from now, far beyond the horizon of politicians. much the same difference between political and societal timescales exists in economics. Many countries have realized, following roller-coaster swings of their economies, that setting bank interest rates should be given to an independent group of experts who do not stand to gain or lose personally from the decisions they take. Politicians seeking long-term economic stability have passed the task to central bank committees. In the same way, fisheries management decisions need to be made by independent organizations that take scientific advice for what it is: the best judgment of a group of experts about how much of a fish population it is safe to catch and that allows the species to maintain its role in the ecosystem. Decisions on catches that exceed those judgments should be made only in the most unusual circumstances. in some countries, there have been moves toward decentralizing management responsibility for fisheries. The United States, for example, has eight Fishery Management Councils, each covering a different region of the country. Council members are drawn from science, industry, conservation bodies, and the public, but they are dominated by people from the fishing industry, who make up half the total membership. Putting fishers in charge of management decisions has been likened to having the fox in charge of the henhouse. Short-term economic arguments weigh heavily on their minds, such as where the next loan repayment on the boat is going to come from. It comes as no surprise that Fishery Management Councils have been roundly criticized for not making the tough decisions needed to ensure long-term sustainability. Independent decision making does not mean decision making by industry. That will neither secure the future for fisheries nor adequately address fishery problems that assail nontarget species and their habitats. the third reform is to eliminate catch quotas and replace them with limits on fishing effort. Landings quotas, as I explained earlier, do not stop fish being killed, only from being landed (legally at least). Quotas must be abandoned in favor of limits on where, how long, and with what gear a vessel can fish. Only by limiting fishing effort can we prevent fish from being killed, giving them a chance to grow larger and produce more young. In the United States, limits on fishing effort have been in use for a long time in many fisheries, but the idea has been slow to take off in Europe. However, European fishery managers are now experimenting with regulations that limit the number of days boats can spend at sea. Of course, limits on fishing power will still have to be adjusted over time to account for technological advances. the fourth plank in the reform package is to require people to keep what they catch. Discarding target fish is universally regarded as a tragic waste. After all, the fish are dead anyway, so putting them back into the sea isn’t going
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to help much. Regulators insist on throwing away overquota fish, because if vessels could keep them, overfishing would be rewarded. Paradoxically, insisting that boats keep what they catch could be a powerful conservation measure, provided limits on fishing effort are enforced. Some countries, such as Norway, have already put the idea into practice. This idea works because fish are worth different amounts depending on size and species. Requiring fishers to keep all they catch means that crews that are able to fish most selectively for the target species will make the most money. Others will be forced to carry back lowvalue bycatch species, which in Norway are bought by the government at a low price and turned into fishmeal. There are many ways to fish more selectively, by modifying fishing gear and choosing fishing grounds more carefully, for example. This reform gives fishers an economic incentive to adopt the best fishing practices. this measure, requiring that fishers use gear designed to reduce bycatch, complements measure number 4. For years, government fisheries laboratories across the world have been experimenting with gear modifications that reduce bycatch. In only a handful of cases have their inventions ever been adopted by the industry. One notable example is the incorporation of turtle excluder devices into shrimp trawls. An angled plastic grid is set in the neck of the trawl net that guides the turtle to a flap through which it can escape. Before these devices were installed, the u.s. and the Mexican shrimp fleets operating in the Gulf of Mexico drowned thousands of turtles every year and put some species on a fast track to extinction. Sadly, most bycatch species lack the charisma of turtles and don’t have the legal backup afforded to endangered species to force the fishing industry to reform. And even those that do, like the harbor porpoises killed by pair trawling for sea bass in the English Channel, where a net is towed between two boats, suffer from legislative inertia or indifference by fishery managers. experience shows that fishers are reluctant to use gear designed to reduce
bycatch because it would cost them money to change gear and might reduce their total catch. Hence it is unrealistic to expect fishers to voluntarily adopt best fishing practices. Gear that reduces bycatch often reduces catch of target species as well. This is sometimes offset by gains from quicker processing, such as in shrimp fisheries where animals have to be sorted by hand from the copious bycatch. However, the gain is rarely sufficient to tempt fishers to accept the expense of changing gear, which in turn makes manufacturers unwilling to supply them. If all of the bycatch reduction devices gathering dust in fisheries research institutes were put into the sea tomorrow, fishing would become a more benign activity overnight. The only way the industry will accept this gear is when legislation forces everyone to use it. some fishing gear is highly destructive and modifications cannot go far enough to make much difference to the damage it does. For example, bottom-trawl nets will always crush and sever bottomliving species like corals. The only solution for this gear is to ban it completely, or greatly restrict where it can be used. From the fourteenth century on, the destructive tendencies of bottom trawling have generated passionate and sometimes violent complaint. Yet the method has spread to every sea on the planet. Some areas have been closed to trawling, notably close to coasts, especially in places considered to be spawning or nursery grounds for commercially important species. But for the most part, trawling grounds are defined simply as any place a fisher is willing to put down a trawl. The deep sea is a place bottom trawls should never touch. Gear used to penetrate
chapter 06 // future of fish
the deep is heavier and more destructive than that used in shallow seas. The heavy steel rollers on the ground rope and the 5-tonne plates that hold the net open are incompatible with the fragile world a thousand meters beneath the surface. Anywhere trawled in the deep sea suffers immense, perhaps irreparable damage. There are many reasons to restrict where fishing gear can be used. Trawling for pollock is already banned in a 20-nautical-mile (37 kilometer) radius of Steller’s sea lion haul-outs in the Aleutian Islands of the North Pacific to protect the sea lions’ food. It is inappropriate to use surface-set gill nets near seabird colonies, because diving birds tangle in them and drown. Pair trawls should not be fished in places where marine mammals are put at risk. Spearguns should not be used on coral reefs because they take the largest, most reproductively valuable fish as well as rarities. Poisons and dynamite are too destructive to be acceptable under any circumstances, although they are still widely used throughout much of the tropics to kill fish en masse. trawling has come in for much criticism in this book. But banning bottom trawling everywhere is not necessary. Large expanses of shallowwater continental shelf habitat are dominated by gravel, sand, and mud—perfect for trawling. Repeated trawling of these places over long historical timescales has favored communities of animals and plants that are resilient to its effects. The trawl is a highly effective means of catching fish at low cost. From a fisheries perspective, many places would produce more fish with less trawling, but that is not the same as insisting upon a halt to trawling altogether. Vast tracts of land are put to the plough every year to grow crops. There is no reason why some parts of the ocean should not be put to the plough for fish. But not everywhere. The seas will remain impoverished and their wildlife will continue to disappear unless we put some places beyond harm. In regions that are now mud, sand, and gravel, there was so much more before the advent of the trawl. The only way to see these rich seascapes again is to protect them. The bottomliving communities will not recover by reducing fishing effort alone, even by draconian amounts. Changing the frequency with which trawls hit the bottom from once a year to once every other year will make little difference to long-lived species like corals and sponges. It is only the difference between some passes of the trawl and none that will lead to full habitat recovery. And it isn’t just life on the seabed that needs respite from fishing. The thousands of species we know have been depleted and the thousands more that we don’t know about need refuges, too. What may come as a surprise is that areas protected from fishing can benefit fisheries as well. we can restore the life and habitats of the sea because it is in everyone’s interest that we do so. The same large-scale networks of marine reserves, complemented by other measures of fish and habitat protection, best serve the interests of both commerce and conservation. You can have exploitation with protection, because reserves help sustain catches in surrounding fishing grounds. But you cannot have exploitation without protection, not in the long term.
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extrapolating the current downward trend suggests that availability of fish will fall to around 70 percent of today’s level by 2050.
index
anchoveta 36, 47, 56-59, 69-71, 80 // aquaculture 11, 47-51, 44-69, 93 // bear island 30-33 // bluefin tuna 44, 80 // bottom-trawling 29, 100-101 // bycatch 56, 82-82, 86-87, 91, 96-100 // catch-per-unit effort 29-33 // catch quotas 36, 96-99 // china 47-48, 51-53, 56-61, 68, 78, 87 //climate change 94-95 // cod 11, 29-31, 38, 72, 93 // common fisheries policy 39, 97 // coral reefs 101 // drift nets 33 // ecosystem 11-13, 17-19, 23, 50-51, 77-78, 86-87, 94, 99 // ecosystem overfishing 23 // el ni単o 36, 47, 71 // estuary // european union 68-70, 89 // extinction 12-13, 25, 42-45, 100 // fishery management 87, 99 // fishing gear 83, 100-101 // fishmeal 51, 53, 67, 100 // food and agriculture organization (fao) 12, 14, 38, 47, 56-61, 65, 69, 74, 78, 87, 98 // gill nets 44, 83, 101 // grouper 96 // growth overfishing 23-24 // halibut 30, 96 // herring 29, 33, 36, 39, 44-45, 69, 80-81, 96-97 // hutchings, jeff 96 // iceland 29-33, 39, 44, 61 // invertebrates 39 // japan 31, 58, 61, 71 // longlines 44, 83, 87 // maximum sustainable yield 25, 96 // midwater trawls 33, 83 // moratoriums 36, 96 // nets 29-33, 36, 44-45, 70, 83, 100-101 // newfoundland 30 // oysters 42, 45, 48, 65 // pollution 45, 51, 76-79, 94 // predators 18-19, 23, 39, 93 // purse seiners 33, 70 // recruitment overfishing 23, 25 // reforms in fishery management 12, 96-98 // seabed 12, 37-39, 93, 107 // seagrass 43 // seaweed 45 // seine nets 33, 70 // sharks 18, 44, 56-58, 77, 83, 93 // shrimp 48, 58, 72, 82-83, 100 // steam trawlers 29-30 // sustainable 49, 56, 68-69, 86, 96-97 // trophic levels 18-19, 23 // tuna 18, 44, 58-59, 69-72, 76, 80-81, 96 // united nations 31, 56, 77, 81, 86 // world war i 29-31 // world war ii 29-31 // worm, boris 12
by a vast ocean. Over 70% of the Earth’s surface in fact. The ocean’s great biodiversity is unmatched and it contains over 80% of all life on Earth, mostly unexplored. Millions of people worldwide depend on the oceans for their daily livelihoods. More and more this is endangered because of ignorance and a global dearth of management. Fishing is central to the livelihood of 200 million people, mostly those in the developing world, and one in five people in the world depends on fish as their primary source of protein. But amid facts about aquaculture’s rising worldwide production rates, other, more sobering, figures reveal that global marine fish stocks are in jeopardy; from increasing pressure by overfishing and environmental degradation and pollution.
an empty net
our planet is covered mostly
an empty net overfishing in the world’s oceans compiled and designed by Emily Dubin