Towards sustainability in world fisheries

Fish and Fisheries, 2002

Since humans began ¢shing (at least 90 000 years ago), ¢shing technology has developed with the objective of trying to catch the greatest quantities of ¢sh possible, of an ever-increasing variety. Fishing technology has evolved from simple harpoons and hooks to the industrial factory trawlers of the 20th century. After millennia of assuming that seafood resources are inexhaustible, and centuries of somewhat muted concerns that advanced ¢shing technologies may have detrimental impacts on stocks and ecosystems, the last century has seen advances in ¢shing technology blamed as a major cause of the current over-exploitation of ¢sh stocks. It has mainly been during the last few decades that ¢shing technologists have begun to focus on more conservationorientated goals. This occurred initially in response to concerns over the by-catch of charismatic species (like dolphins in tuna purse-seines), but quickly broadened to address concerns over the discarding of not-so-charismatic species (like juvenile ¢sh killed by shrimp trawling). To ameliorate these issues, technologists and commercial ¢shers successfully developed various innovative gear-based and operational solutions. The steps involved in successfully reducing by-catches have tended to follow a certain incremental framework involving identi¢cation of problems using observer programmes, developing technological solution to these problems, experimentally testing these solutions, implementing these solutions throughout industry and ¢nally gaining acceptance of the solutions from concerned interest groups. Most recently public concern has broadened once again from by-catch issues to encompass a much wider context involving the impacts of ¢shing on entire ecosystems, i.e. the impacts of ¢shing on all species a¡ected^not just those species caught, retained or discarded. As a

Frontiers in Marine Science, 2023

International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. Theme Session E: Climate impacts on marine fishes: discovering centennial patterns and disentangling current processes ICES CM 2009/E:12, 2010

Sustainable fish populations require both healthy ecosystems in which they can live and grow, and protection from overfishing. A rare historical example from the first half of the 19 th century allowed us to describe the chronology of how the vulnerability of a herring (Clupea harengus) population to ecosystem variability was increased by effects of fishing on the population and food web interactions within the ecosystem. Both the population and fishery collapsed when several years of increasing exploitation were followed by an extreme climatic-hydrographic perturbation in 1825 that affected herring survival and changed food web structure (jellyfish bloom). Estimated levels of fishing mortality in years leading up to the collapse of Limfjord herring were 3-5 fold higher than natural mortality rates and similar to those which later led to collapses of 3 major herring populations in the north Atlantic (North Sea Norwegian spring-spawning herring, Georges Bank). These high exploitation rates suggest that fishing was a key factor which increased the vulnerability of the Limfjord herring to collapse. Changes in trophic interactions in the Limfjord after 1825 were therefore facilitated by fishing, which had reduced the abundance of jellyfish food competitors (herring) to low levels, and consequently expanded a niche in the ecosystem for other zooplanktivores with oppportunistic lifehistories. Lowering the risks of future collapses of fish populations and of trophic re-organisations to less desirable configurations, including gelatinous dominance of foodwebs, requires low exploitation rates that buffer against environmental variability and measures to support well-functioning and structured ecosystems.

2001

If we take an historical perspective on fishing, we can blow away several myths that hold us back from developing strategies for restoring the productivity of the oceans and developing an ecologically sustainable fishing industry. Our international research team has shown that we need a perspective that reaches back into deep time – at least back to the end of the last Ice Age – to understand that historical overfishing is the primary driver of the collapse of marine ecosystems. With this perspective we can expose the myths about fisheries management and marine conservation that underpin our present behaviour of seeking a scientifically flawed status quo ante as a basis for our management of fish stocks and marine ecosystems. With the myths dispelled, we can begin to design bold but scientifically rigorous strategies for the sustainable development of the oceans.

The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, 2010

Overexploitation and sustainability have been core concepts in the management of renewable resources since the 1600s. Traditionally, these terms were directly linked to one another, so that overexploitation was truly unsustainable. In fisheries management, the connection between them was severed when maximum sustainable yield became the guiding principal for many management bodies in the 1950s. The current tendency is to consider fishery management a failure if a stock is ‘overfished’. However, the abuse of such terms has led to inappropriate negative perceptions of management systems and the fishing industry. By tracing the origins of the term ‘overfishing’ we demonstrate that modern management systems that link overfishing to an optimal fishing mortality reference point do not adhere to the traditional concept. We suggest a revival of historical definitions of overfishing, based on short-term time horizons. Such a reinterpretation would define sustainable use as harvesting up to the reproductive surplus of the resource, while overexploitation would be indicated by harvesting more than could be naturally replaced in a given year. By re-defining overfishing as unsustainable fishing mortality, the unwarranted negative perception of fisheries can be avoided and promote conservative fishing techniques.

2020

The ICES Working Group on the History of Fish and Fisheries (WGHIST) is a forum for interdisciplinary research on social-ecological change in marine and fisheries systems over multi-decadal to centennial timescales. WGHIST comprises a diverse group of researchers, including marine biologists, fisheries scientists, historians, and historical ecologists, from Europe and North America, as well as Australia, Russia, and South Africa. WGHIST provided a platform for the sharing and reporting of a wide range of research on marine and fisheries systems change over time, including the use of novel and non-traditional data sources and methodologies to identify and interpret these changes. WGHIST members also worked with the ICES Secretariat to forward digital tools to make historical resources more accessible and regarding WGHIST’s potential to support ICES Fisheries and Ecosystem Overviews. WGHIST engaged with the larger research community on the following manuscripts, still in development o...

1996

Growingpopulation pressure has resulted in greaterfishingpressure in coastal zones. Normally this should have resulted in fewer yields per fisher; however, at national level, this expected reduction has not occurred, perhaps as a result of more dispersed fuhing grounds, changes in technology and more effective effort application. Furthermore, statistical data from Indonesia do not support the hypothesis that fishers' absolute earnings are declining. The truth of this situation with respect to fishers active in the coastalfisheries (especially the coral reef fisheries) and the usefilness of government statistics in this regard, are examined. Traditional fisheries management methods are analysed, and their role in maintaining subsistence fisheries is assessed. In order to counteract the perceived or real losses of earnings, some inshore fishers are changing from traditional fishing methods to destructive, non-sustainable methods using dynamite or cyanide. Three such fisheries are examined: dynamite (blast) fishing, the use of cyanide to catch live foodfish, and the use of cyanide in the aquarium fish trade. An appraisal is made of which segment of thefihing community is using these methods, and why they are using them. Strategies to counteract the non-sustainable, reef-destroying methods are discussed: reducing open access and strengthening traditional management; providing alternative employment opportunities in ecotourism; developing sustainable culture methods and encouraging the use of less harmfil capture methods for aquarium species.

Maritime Studies, 2015

Humanity's relationship with fish dates back to prehistory, when ancestral hominins evolved the capacity to exploit aquatic resources. The impacts of early fishing on aquatic ecosystems were likely minimal, as primitive technology was used to harvest fish primarily for food. As fishing technology became more sophisticated and human populations dispersed and expanded, local economies transitioned from hunter-gatherer subsistence to barter and complex trade. This set up a positive feedback ratcheting fishing technology, mercantilization, and the commoditization of fish. A historical narrative based on archaeology and documentary evidence follows the principal changes in fisheries through evolutionary, ancient, classical and medieval eras to modern times. Some local depletions are recorded from early fishing, but from the 1950s, massive impacts of serial depletions by size, species, area and depth are driven by commoditized fishery products. North Sea herring fisheries are described in detail. Today's severely depleted wild fish populations reflect social institutions built on global markets that value fish predominantly as a consumptive commodity, risking future ecological integrity and human food security. To sustain global fisheries, decommoditization strategies that sustain human and ecosystem relationships with fish beyond their commodity value are needed.

2011