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Review of the state of world marine fishery resources











FAO Marine Resources Service, Fishery Resources Division.Review of the state of world marine fishery resources.FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 457. Rome, FAO. 2005. 235p.


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    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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    This document describes highly migratory fish stocks, straddling fish stocks, and stocks of other high seas fishery resources and the fisheries for them, including information on their state of exploitation. Fisheries for highly migratory species are important in all oceans and semi-enclosed seas, except for polar regions. Fisheries for straddling fish stocks are much more localized, primarily occurring in a few regions where continental shelves extend beyond the 200 miles Exclusive Economic Zon e while most fisheries for other high seas fishery resources are deep-water fisheries. Formal assessments are lacking for most of the stocks examined. Nevertheless, the compilation of available assessments and FAO’s analyses indicate that about 30 percent of the stocks of highly migratory tuna and tuna-like species, more than 50 percent of the highly migratory oceanic sharks and nearly two-thirds of the straddling stocks and the stocks of other high seas fishery resources are overexploited or de pleted. The stocks concerned represent only a small fraction of the world fishery resources, but are key indicators of the state of an overwhelming part of the ocean ecosystem which appears to be more overexploited than EEZs. The scarcity of the information available and the short time elapsed since the entering into force of the UN Fish Stock Agreement does not allow for a realistic assessment of the impact it may have had on the state of the various fish stocks being exploited in the high seas . Some key issues on which progress and improvements are needed are addressed, including those regarding fisheries in the high seas for resources other than straddling stocks and highly migratory species.
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    Tilapias are not native to Asia but have been a significant component of inland fisheries and aquaculture in the region for over half a century. They have been introduced into over 90 countries worldwide, with a global distribution second only to common carp. The contribution of tilapias to global aquaculture production has increased over the past three decades with production in 2002 exceeding 1.5 million tonnes with an estimated value of US$1.8 billion. The average annual growth rate in aquacu lture and capture fisheries production of tilapias from 1970 to 2002 has been 13.2 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively. In the present context of development, success of a species is determined not only by its contribution to production per se, but also by its social, cultural, economic and environmental impacts. Although tilapia has been associated with adverse environmental impacts, detailed analysis of the literature suggested that other factors, such as overfishing, environmental degradati on from land-based activities, and changes in hydrological regime have probably been more responsible for adverse impacts. It is clear that numerous factors working together can impact biodiversity. It is also clear that tilapias, as a group of alien species, have made a significant contribution to food production, poverty alleviation and livelihoods support in Asia and the Pacific. In spite of the wide-scale introduction into Asian waters, there is scant explicit evidence to indicate that tila pias have been overly destructive environmentally.

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