Study establishes recipe for sustainable fisheries

Researchers have contended that transparency and the integration of scientific advice into policies are the paths to sustainable fisheries. The concept was presented in a study comprising the first worldwide evaluation of the impact of management practices on the sustainability of fish stocks.
The study was published in the journal PLoS Biology and conducted by researchers at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It examines the efficacy of management practices by looking at evaluations made by about 1,200 fisheries experts, and analyzing them along with data on the sustainability of fish harvests.
It was concluded that that most management techniques are lacking and substandard compared to those of international organisations. Also, that the main ingredient needed to reach sustainability is the transparent and participatory adaptation of scientific advice into policy.
"The world's fisheries are one of the most important natural assets to humankind," said Camilo Mora, lead author of the study and researcher at Dalhousie University and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego (UCSD).
"Unfortunately, our use of the world's fisheries has been excessive and has led to the decline or collapse of many stocks," he added.
Fisheries supply about 15 per cent of the animal protein in the human diet, according to the latest report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Fisheries are also responsible for the direct and indirect employment of almost 200 million people, a worldwide industry worth USD 85 billion per year.
"The different socioeconomic and ecological consequences associated with declining fish stocks are an international concern and several initiatives have been put forward to ensure that countries improve the way they use their marine resources," Mora said.
The map displays the effectiveness of the world's fisheries management regimes. Highlighted are the average scores each country received in a groundbreaking new survey (Map: UCSD)
"Some of these initiatives include the United Nations Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Although these initiatives have been endorsed by most governments, a global assessment on the extent to which these ideals are actually implemented and effective remains lacking," he explained.
The FAO report also states that 28 per cent of all stocks are overfished or have already collapsed and 52 per cent are fully exploited.
"The consequences of overexploiting the world's fisheries are a concern not only for food security and socio-economic development but for ocean ecosystems," said Boris Worm, a professor at Dalhousie University and co-author of the study.
To assess country-level fisheries, Mora, Worm and their colleagues used a set of attributes: the scientific quality of management recommendations, the transparency of converting scientific recommendations into policy, the enforcement of policies, and the extent of subsidies, fishing effort and fishing by foreign fleets.
These attributes were incorporated into a questionnaire that would prompt worst- to best-case scenarios and was presented to over 13,000 experts in five languages. They used almost 1,200 evaluations, which corroborated the data obtained in the study.
Results showed that 7 per cent of Earth's coastal states run thorough scientific assessments to create management policies, 1.4 per cent have a participatory and transparent process to turn scientific advice into policy and less than 1 per cent make efforts to ensure regulations are followed. No country on Earth met all attributes or was found to also be exempt from the impact of excess fishing capacity, subsidies or access to foreign fishing.
While affluent countries are suffering the effects of excessive subsidies and bigger fishing capacities, poor countries-which face food supply shortages-sold their fishing rights to countries with larger capacities. Both types of countries shared a thwarted ability to transform scientific advice into policy, although reasons vary: affluent countries face political and economic pressures while poor countries struggle with corruption.