Management Effectiveness of the World's Marine Fisheries

Camilo Mora,Kevin J Gaston,Dirk Zeller,Tony J Pitcher,Marta Coll,Ransom A Myers,Simone Libralato,Rashid U Sumaila,Boris Worm,Reg Watson

doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000131

Abstract

Author SummaryGlobal fisheries are in crisis: marine fisheries provide 15% of the animal protein consumed by humans, yet 80% of the world's fish stocks are either fully exploited, overexploited or have collapsed. Several international initiatives have sought to improve the management of marine fisheries, hoping to reduce the deleterious ecological and socioeconomic consequence of the crisis. Unfortunately, the extent to which countries are improving their management and whether such intervention ensures the sustainability of the fisheries remain unknown. Here, we surveyed 1,188 fisheries experts from every coastal country in the world for information about the effectiveness with which fisheries are being managed, and related those results to an index of the probable sustainability of reported catches. We show that the management of fisheries worldwide is lagging far behind international guidelines recommended to minimize the effects of overexploitation. Only a handful of countries have a robust scientific basis for management recommendations, and transparent and participatory processes to convert those recommendations into policy while also ensuring compliance with regulations. Our study also shows that the conversion of scientific advice into policy, through a participatory and transparent process, is at the core of achieving fisheries sustainability, regardless of other attributes of the fisheries. These results illustrate the benefits of participatory, transparent, and science-based management while highlighting the great vulnerability of the world's fisheries services. The data for each country can be viewed at http://as01.ucis.dal.ca/ramweb/surveys/fishery_assessment.

Highlights

Fisheries play an important role in the global provision of food, directly accounting for at least 15% of the animal protein consumed by humans and indirectly supporting food production by aquaculture and livestock industries [1,2]
Over 13,000 experts were contacted as part of this survey, of which 1,188 responded from each country bordering the ocean (i.e., exclusive economic zone (EEZ); see Materials and Methods for additional details on areas surveyed)
We found that fleet sizes are quantified and regulated in 20% of the world’s EEZs (Figure S1N), in 93% of EEZs, fishing fleets face some level of modernization to catch fish more efficiently or cheaply (Figure S1O)

Summary

Introduction

Fisheries play an important role in the global provision of food, directly accounting for at least 15% of the animal protein consumed by humans and indirectly supporting food production by aquaculture and livestock industries [1,2]. Given the different ecological and socioeconomic consequences of a global fisheries crisis, a number of international efforts have sought to improve management in the hope of moving towards sustainable marine fisheries (sensu Pauly et al [13]). Some of these initiatives, which incorporated to varying degrees the improvement of marine fisheries management, include the United Nations Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries from the Food and Agriculture Organization [14], the Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.cbd.int/), and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (http://www.millenniumassessment.org).

Methods

Results

Conclusion