Sustainability and Challenges of the World Marine Fisheries Yimin Ye Chief, Marine and Inland Fisheries Branch FAO of The United Nations Y Ye

Outline Significance of fisheries in poverty elimination, food security and sustainable development Status and trends of world fisheries sustainability International community’s initiatives and effort to achieve sustainable fisheries Disparity among countries in achieving fisheries sustainability Challenges the world fisheries face towards sustainable development Y Ye

The Great Challenges for Humanity and FAO’s mission Sustainability Hunger - 850 m Poverty (<1.9$) – 1.2 b Eradicate hunger and food insecurity Eliminate poverty Sustainable use of natural resources Production - 167 mt fish in 2014 17% of global pop. animal protein intake Direct employment - 56.6 m Livelihoods – 12% of global population ~70% fish stocks sustainably managed Y Ye

Global Landings of Marine Capture Fisheries Peaked in 1995 at 88 mt Declined since then Y Ye

Statements on Fisheries “We are eating bait and moving on to jellyfish and plankton,” says Daniel Pauly, UBC 2006 Science 2006 2012 Two-thirds of wildlife may be gone by 2020: WWF Y Ye

Global Trends in World Marine Fish Stock since 1974 (FAO 2016) 70% sustainable in 2013 ~30% overfished in 2013 The decreasing trend has not been reserved Unsustainable Sustainable Y Ye

Sustainability of Fisheries by Area ✓ ✓ × × ✓ ✓ Y Ye

by FAO Statistical Area Fish Landings by FAO Statistical Area ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Ladings highly variable among areas Some areas show an increasing trend Y Ye

International Legal Framework for the Sustainability of Fisheries UNCLOS –… measures should also be designed to maintain or restore populations of harvest species at level which can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY), … (Article 61.3) UNFSA – maintain or restore stocks to levels that can produce MSY (Par 30a) The fishing mortality rate which generates MSY should be regarded as a minimum standard for limited reference points (Annex II, par 7) The Code - long-term sustainable use of fisheries resources is the overriding objective of conservation and management, States and subregional or regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements should, inter alia, adopt appropriate measures, based on the best scientific evidence available, which are designed to maintain or restore stocks at levels capable of producing MSY,… Y Ye

The United Nations’ Initiatives to Achieve Sustainable Fisheries Millennium Development Goal (2000) Goal 7- Environmental Sustainability Indicator 7.4 – Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits WSSD (2002) Maintain/restore stocks to levels that can produce the MSY with the aim of achieving these goals for depleted stocks on an urgent basis and where possible no later than 2015 SDG (2030 Agenda) Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development Target 14.4 – by 2020, restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics Y Ye

Proportion of Overfished Stocks Failed to achieve the WSSD goal Unlikely to achieve the SDG No progress at all? Some progress Y Ye

Examples of Success in Rebuilding Fisheries Y Ye

Disparity in Landings, Effort and CPUE: Developed vs developing countries Developed countries Ye &Gutierrez in print Costello et al 2012 Y Ye

The Costs of Overfishing (Ye et al 2013) Loss in seafood production - 16.5 mt/year Loss in economic benefits - $32 b/year Waste of human labor and inefficiency – 12 m fishers Biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystem services and functioning Y Ye

Challenges to Sustainable Fisheries External Climate change Ocean acidification Ever-increasing market demand Internal Overfished stocks IUU fishing Majority of fisheries without stock assessment, particularly in developing world (80% of world catches) Overcapacity Y Ye

Excess Fleet Capacity in World Fisheries For the highest catch, effort to be reduced by ~40% from 2012 Similar to Ye et al. (2012) and Bell et al (2016) Caveat The use of catch against effort deserves great caution as this is not a single species fishery Y Ye

Factors Necessary to Secure Sustainable Fisheries Policy frameworks with clear objectives for sustainability MSY – USA, EU, New Zealand; MEY – Australia Institutional capacity Knowledge of institutional arrangement’s impact on fisheries Stock assessment MCS Effective governance Integration with national policy strategy Integration among all related sectors (fishery, environment, trade, economic etc) Stakeholder participation (environmentists, fishers, various levels of governments) Appropriate incentives Use rights-based systems (TAC, TURF) Community based management Co-management Adaptive with the complex fishery system Adaptive to external changes Response to internal demands Y Ye

Sustainable Fisheries Development Three pillars Balance among the three pillars Change over time Y Ye

Summary Points Landings of World Fisheries declining with 30% of fish stock overfished The UN initiative: SDG target – zero overfishing by 2020 No significant progress at global level towards SDG target Great achievements seen in some countries Developed countries did better than developing ones Fisheries face many challenges, overcapacity is the most direct one Sustainability of fisheries Sustainability needs to balance among the three pillars Such a balance may differ among countries and over time Sustainable fish resources are the foundation Y Ye

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