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Review of the state of world marine fishery resources – 2025

Year of publication 2025

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 515 p.

Author Sharma, R. (ed.); Barange, M. (ed.); Agostini, V. (ed.); Barros, P. (ed.); Gutierrez, N.L. (ed.); Vasconcellos, M. (ed.); Fernandez Reguera, D. (ed.); Tiffay, C. (ed.); Levontin, P. (ed.);

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (series)

ISBN 978-92-5-139859-3

Series title FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Papers

Series number No. 721

To cite or share https://doi.org/10.4060/cd5538en

Synopsis (short abstract) Marine fisheries are crucial to the food security and nutrition, economy and overall well-being of coastal communities. Maintaining the long-term prosperity and sustainability of marine fisheries is therefore not only ecologically significant, but has social, economic and political importance. The aim of this report is to provide FAO Members, national and regional policymakers, academia, civil society, fishers and managers of world fishery resources with a comprehensive, objective and global review of the state of the living fishery resources of the oceans. This document updates the regular reviews of the state of the world’s marine fishery resources, based on stock assessments and complementary information up to 2023, and official catch statistics through to 2021. The introductory and methodology chapters provide the wider context in which this updated edition of the Review of the state of world marine fishery resources was prepared, highlighting evolutions in the landscape of fisheries and stock assessment capacities since the previous edition of this report in 2011. The methodology section gives a detailed overview of the updated FAO process for providing the state of stocks index, which involved a highly participatory and transparent process (including 19 regional workshops and consultations, with around 650 in-person experts representing 92 countries and 200 organizations). Importantly, the total number of stocks in the assessments included in this report has significantly increased to 2 570. Discussions on major trends and changes at the global level are explored in a dedicated global overview chapter, while more detailed information on the status of stocks for each of the FAO Major Fishing Areas is set out in dedicated regional chapters. Special sections address the global issue of tunas and tuna-like species, and other high-profile fisheries such as deep-sea fisheries in areas beyond national jurisdiction, and highly migratory sharks. Summary tables are provided for each species grouping used in this assessment, indicating the number of stocks included, their sustainability classification between overfished, maximally sustainably fished, and underfished categories, and the number of stocks classified into tiers based on the availability and quality of information and thus the assessment methods used.

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Sharma, R., Barange, M., Agostini, V., Barros, P., Gutierrez, N.L., Vasconcellos, M., Fernandez Reguera, D., Tiffay, C., & Levontin, P., eds. 2025. Review of the state of world marine fishery resources – 2025. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper, No. 721. Rome. FAO.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cd5538en

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