Marine fisheries are very important to the economy and well-being of coastal communities, providing food security, job opportunities, income and livelihoods as well as traditional cultural identity. Maintaining the long-term prosperity and sustainability of marine fisheries is not only of political and social significance but also of economic and ecological importance.
FAO has just published the Review of the state of world marine fishery resources, a comprehensive, objective and global review of the state of the living marine resources of the oceans. It is based mainly on official catch statistics up until 2009 and relevant stock assessment and other complementary information available until 2010.
The document summarises the information available for each FAO Statistical Area; discusses the major trends and changes that have occurred with the main ?shery resources exploited in each area; and reviews the stock assessment work undertaken in support of ?sheries management in each region.
With marine fishery resources depleting, FAO asks whether it is possible to increase global
fishery production any further?
One way in
which yields could be increased is to rebuild
the 30 per cent overfished stocks so that they
can produce close to their MSY. This should
lead to a net increase in landings. However, it
is difficult to estimate the extent of this increase
because it is not only related to the current abundance of overfished stocks but also
depends on the biological and technical interactions between species.
Nevertheless, the
top ten demersal species have 43 per cent of stocks overfished. As a result, their 2009
production was only 51 per cent of their peak level. This may give some indication
of the scale of catch loss caused by overfishing. However, better estimates of the lost
production will require a combination of stock assessments and ecosystem modelling.
A second approach for increasing global production would be to intensify exploitation
of the non-fully exploited stocks (13 per cent of the monitored stocks). To avoid the
same pattern of overfishing that has been experienced with other species in the past, any
attempt to intensify exploitation on non-fully exploited stocks should be accompanied
by precautionary management plans.
Further Reading
 | - | You can view the full report by clicking here. |
