Fisheries Science

Fisheries play an essential role in the sustainability and health of our planet by providing much-needed food as well as other important services. Globally, fisheries feed billions of people and offer jobs and livelihoods for millions more. The global market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at three trillion dollars annually.^[1]  Over three billion people depend upon the oceans to provide their primary source of protein, and marine fisheries directly or indirectly employ over 200 million people.^[2]  In the United States alone, fishing generates over $200 billion in sales each year and more than 1.7 million jobs rely on commercial and recreational fisheries.^[3] Other benefits, whether cultural, inspirational, or recreational, are harder to quantify but just as important.

There are four key concepts that are essential to fully understanding fisheries science and its role in managing the sustainability of the ocean’s limited resources:

What is a Fishery?

A fishery is a geographic area that is associated with a population of aquatic organisms (fish, mollusks, crustaceans, etc.) which are harvested for various economic endeavors.^[4] Generally, a fishery exists for the purpose of providing human food, although other purposes are possible, such as sport or recreational fishing, obtaining ornamental fish, or producing fish products (fish oil, cosmetics, paint, lubricants, soaps, industrial coatings). Industrial fisheries are fisheries where the catch is not intended for direct human consumption.^[5]

What is a Fish Stock?

Fish stock is the living resources in the community or population from which catches are taken in a fishery. The use of the term fish stock usually implies that the particular population is more or less isolated from other stocks of the same species and, therefore, self-sustaining.^[6]  However, fish stocks are not necessarily the same as fish populations. A population is a group of fish of the same species, but a fish stock can be a population, a smaller subset of one population, or can include more than one population. Fish stocks are often identified by management areas, which are defined geographical regions. They are typically fish of the same species, although individual fish in different stocks might mix or migrate between different areas.^[7]

When assessing a fish stock, fisheries scientists estimate how many fish are in a management area in a given period, as well as the expected impacts and benefits of proposed fisheries management measures for that stock. Information from stock assessments helps fisheries scientists make decisions about rules or directions to follow for specific management areas or fisheries.^[8]

What is Overfishing?

Overfishing occurs when vessels catch fish faster than fish stocks can replenish because the breeding population becomes too depleted to recover. Due to overfishing, fish populations are in an alarming decline across the globe. Recent studies have shown that approximately 90% of the biggest fish in the world’s oceans have been taken by big commercial fishing fleets.^[9] Prolonged overfishing has caused nearly a third of the world’s assessed fisheries to be fished far beyond their sustainable capacity.

Ocean Sustainability

Ocean sustainability is about approaching ocean management in a way that protects the ocean and the resources it provides.^[10] It is, in short, a balancing act between what is good for the health and well-being of the ocean and what is good for the economic well-being of those who are dependent on the ocean. Ocean sustainability requires the “use of ocean resources in ways that preserve the health and resilience of marine ecosystems and improves livelihoods and jobs, balancing protection and prosperity.”^[11] Obviously, the overfishing of fish stocks is one of the primary threats to ocean sustainability (along with climate change, ocean acidification and pollution, plastic or otherwise).

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. The adoption of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals was a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Sustainable Development Goal 14 is “Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources” or, more colloquially, “Life Under Water.” Out of the ten specific target set forth in Goal 14, four directly to involve fisheries issues:

14.4 Fish stocks within sustainable levels. By 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics.

14.6 Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. By 2020, prohibit certain forms of fisheries subsidies which contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, eliminate subsidies that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and refrain from introducing new such subsidies, recognizing that appropriate and effective special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countries should be an integral part of the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies negotiation

14.7 Income from Sustainable Fisheries. By 2030, increase the economic benefits to Small Island developing States and least developed countries from the sustainable use of marine resources, including through sustainable management of fisheries, aquaculture and tourism

But the most recent Sustainable Development Goals Report, released in July 2022, states that “cascading and interlinked crises are putting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in grave danger, along with humanity’s very own survival.” The Report highlights that the “rapidly growing consumption of fish (an increase of 122 per cent between 1990 and 2018), along with inadequate public policies for managing the sector, have led to depleting fish stocks.”^[12]

Fisheries Science

Managing fisheries sustainably is an adaptive process that relies on sound science and that starts with accurate scientific information about fish and fisheries.^[13] Fisheries scientists focus on managing the biology, ecology, and oceanography of the nation’s living marine resources (fish, shellfish, crustaceans, and marine mammals) and their habitat. In conducting their work, fisheries scientist bring together a wide range of academic disciplines, including ecology, mathematics and statistics, population dynamics, and marine biology, all with the aim of better understanding fish stocks and fisheries so that they can be sustainably managed.^[14]  Fisheries scientists analyze the ecological health and sustainability of fisheries, how the health of fisheries affects the people who interact with them and vice versa. Fisheries scientists assess and monitor fish and aquatic invertebrate populations to determine ecological and economic health of the environment as well as to determine harvest rates of various species.^[15]

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Citations

1. Life Below Water, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
2. Life Below Water, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
3. Fisheries Economics of the United States, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
4. What are Fisheries?, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
5. Fishery, New World Encyclopedia.
6. Fish Stock, European Environment Agency.
7. Fisheries Science Overview, Government of Canada.
8. Fisheries Science Overview, Government of Canada.
9. What are Fisheries?, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
10. World Ocean Day: What is ocean sustainability?
11. Integrated Ocean Management Blue Paper 14, Winther, J. G. et al., World Resources Institute, (2020).
12. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022, United Nations.
13. Sustainable Fisheries: Science, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
14. Fisheries Science Overview, Government of Canada.
15. What is fisheries science?, Hutton Junior Fisheries Biology Program.