Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining

Abstract

Fisheries data assembled by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) suggest that global marine fisheries catches increased to 86 million tonnes in 1996, then slightly declined. Here, using a decade-long multinational 'catch reconstruction' project covering the Exclusive Economic Zones of the world's maritime countries and the High Seas from 1950 to 2010, and accounting for all fisheries, we identify catch trajectories differing considerably from the national data submitted to the FAO. We suggest that catch actually peaked at 130 million tonnes, and has been declining much more strongly since. This decline in reconstructed catches reflects declines in industrial catches and to a smaller extent declining discards, despite industrial fishing having expanded from industrialized countries to the waters of developing countries. The differing trajectories documented here suggest a need for improved monitoring of all fisheries, including often neglected small-scale fisheries, and illegal and other problematic fisheries, as well as discarded bycatch.

Figure 1. Trajectories of reported and reconstructed marine fisheries catches 1950–2010.

Contrast between the world's marine fisheries catches, assembled by FAO from voluntary submissions of its member countries (‘reported') and that of the catch ‘reconstructed' to include all fisheries known to exist, in all countries and in the High Sea (‘reconstructed'=‘reported'+estimates of ‘unreported'). The mean weighted percentage uncertainty of the reconstructed total catches (over all countries and fisheries sectors) based on the quality scores attributed to each sector in each country and territory (dashed line) is also shown.

Figure 2. Trajectories of marine fisheries catches 1950–2010.

Effects of removing discards on estimates of seafood caught per capita, and of removing the catches of the major countries using quota management (that is, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Western Europe) on reconstructed total catches.

Figure 3. Reconstructed and reported catches by FAO areas.

Contrasting reconstructed and reported catches in the 19 maritime ‘Statistical Areas' which FAO uses to roughly spatialize the world catch. Note that for Area 18 (Arctic), the reported catch by the U.S. and Canada was zero, while only Russia (former-USSR) reported a small catch in the late 1960s, even though the coastal fishes of the high Arctic are exploited by Inuit and others.

Figure 4. Reconstructed global catch by fisheries sectors.

Reconstructed catches for all countries in the world, plus High Seas, by large-scale (industrial) and small-scale sectors (artisanal, subsistence, recreational), with discards (overwhelmingly from industrial fisheries) presented separately.