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

2. 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
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3. The Great Challenges for Humanity and FAO’s mission
Sustainability
Hunger m
Poverty (<1.9$) – 1.2 b
Eradicate hunger and food insecurity
Eliminate poverty
Sustainable use of natural resources
Production mt fish in 2014
17% of global pop. animal protein intake
Direct employment m
Livelihoods – 12% of global population
~70% fish stocks sustainably managed
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4. Global Landings of Marine Capture Fisheries
Peaked in 1995 at 88 mt
Declined since then
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5. 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
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6. 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
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7. Sustainability of Fisheries by Area✓ ✓ × × ✓ ✓
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8. by FAO Statistical Area
Fish Landings
by FAO Statistical Area ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Ladings highly variable among areas
Some areas show an increasing trend
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9. 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,…
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10. 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
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11. Proportion of Overfished Stocks
Failed to achieve the WSSD goal
Unlikely to achieve the SDG
No progress at all? Some progress
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12. Examples of Success in Rebuilding Fisheries
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13. Disparity in Landings, Effort and CPUE: Developed vs developing countries
Developed countries
Ye &Gutierrez in print
Costello et al 2012
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14. The Costs of Overfishing
(Ye et al 2013)
Loss in seafood production 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
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15. 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
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16. 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
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17. 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
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18. Sustainable Fisheries Development
Three pillars
Balance among the three pillars
Change over time
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19. 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
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20. Thank you very much for your attention!