The devastating depletion of global fisheries, increasing conflicts between small-scale fishers and large-scale commercial operators, and the elements of a transition toward more sustainable exploitation of fishery resources are among the subjects addressed in WRI’s new report Fishing for Answers: Making sense of the global fish crisis.
The numbers are stunning: over the last 100 years, new technology—from diesel engines to driftnets—and a rapid expansion in fishing capacity has swept aside the limits that once kept fishing a mostly coastal and local affair. Seventy-five percent of commercially important marine and most inland fish stocks are either currently overfished, or are being fished at their biological limit. Of the 200 most valuable fish stocks, 35 percent show declining yields, and a few commercial fish species are even listed as threatened by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The situation could easily worsen: demand is expected to continue growing at 1.5 percent per year through 2020, and the number of fishers and fish farmers is growing markedly as well.
The report identifies a variety of strategies that could contribute to more sustainable fishing practices, including improving licensing and monitoring regimes; developing more refined fishing gears; establishing additional marine protected areas; supporting better stock assessments; and putting in place economic policies that give fishers incentives to reduce fleet sizes and that reward responsible fishing practices.
