Effective fisheries management instrumental in improving fish stock status
By Ray Hilborn, R. Amoroso, Christopher M. Anderson, J. Baum, Trevor A. Branch, C. Costello, C. L. Moor, A. Faraj, Daniel J. Hively, O. Jensen and 13 more. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020
681 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Significance This article compiles estimates of the status of fish stocks from all available scientific assessments, comprising roughly half of the world’s fish catch, and shows that, on average, fish stocks are increasing where they are assessed. We pair this with surveys of the nature and extent of fisheries management systems, and demonstrate that where fisheries are intensively managed, the stocks are above target levels or rebuilding. Where fisheries management is less intense, stock status and trends are worse. We review evidence on the half of world fisheries that are not assessed or intensively managed and suggest their status is much worse than where fisheries are intensively managed. Marine fish stocks are an important part of the world food system and are particularly important for many of the poorest people of the world. Most existing analyses suggest overfishing is increasing, and there is widespread concern that fish stocks are decreasing throughout most of the world. We assembled trends in abundance and harvest rate of stocks that are scientifically assessed, constituting half of the reported global marine fish catch. For these stocks, on average, abundance is increasing and is at proposed target levels. Compared with regions that are intensively managed, regions with less-developed fisheries management have, on average, 3-fold greater harvest rates and half the abundance as assessed stocks. Available evidence suggests that the regions without assessments of abundance have little fisheries management, and stocks are in poor shape. Increased application of area-appropriate fisheries science recommendations and management tools are still needed for sustaining fisheries in places where they are lacking.
Subfields: Ecology, Global and Planetary Change
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/dd928d19c25bb99653e5532241b49f463ab290ea
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Ecology
In Global and Planetary Change
Citations in the corpus
- Blind spots in visions of a “blue economy” could undermine the ocean's contribution to eliminating hunger and malnutrition (2021, background): “Securing a sustainable supply is a necessary precondition for seafood to fulfill and maintain its potential role in the future blue economy, and improved management and governance are fundamental to that ambition.(92) This conclusion notwithstanding, a narrow focus on ecological sustainability and y”
- Overfishing drives over one-third of all sharks and rays toward a global extinction crisis. (2021, neutral): “While the recent effects of human pressures have been well documented for coral reefs,(9,10) much of our understanding of fishery impact is heavily biased toward the most data-rich target species in the developed world.(11) However, statistical predictions, based on life histories, catch, and fisher”