The continued decline in the world catch of marine fish

Abstract

This brief note is an update to the authors' "The Expansion, Limit and Decline of the Global Marine Fish Catch," published in the September 2012 issue of Marine Policy. That paper examined the steady increase in the world's catch from 1950 to 1989, its slight decline and rise to a final peak in 1996. This limit has been followed by a steady decline to 2010. Since there have been improvements in the technology of fishing and no reason to believe that there has been a reduction in fishing effort, then the apparent limit and subsequent decline in the catch suggests a reduction in the supply of fish and invertebrates in the world's oceans. The earlier paper also noted the geographic shift in the world's catch to Asia and the rise of China to become the world's largest catcher of fish.