UN report on the status of the world’s fisheries revealed that fisheries supply at least 15 percent of the animal protein consumed by humans, provide direct and indirect employment for nearly 200 million people worldwide and generate $US85 billion annually. A new study published in this week’s issue of PLoS Biology provides the first global evaluation of how management practices influence fisheries’ sustainability.
As per the study the effectiveness of the world’s fisheries management regimes was assessed using evaluations from nearly 1,200 fisheries experts, analyzing these in combination with data on the sustainability of fisheries catches. It is found that most fisheries management regimes are lagging far behind standards set by international organizations.
It is said that the conversion of scientific advice into policy, through a participatory and transparent process, plays the most critical role in determining the sustainability of fisheries. Lead author Camilo Mora, a Colombian researcher at Dalhousie University and the University of California San Diego, told that the world’s fisheries are one of the most important natural assets to humankind. He added that the consequences of overexploiting the world’s fisheries are a concern not only for food security and socio-economic development but for ocean ecosystems.
Boris Worm, a professor at Dalhousie University and co-author of the paper, states that they are now recognized that overfishing can also lead to the erosion of biodiversity and ecosystem productivity. Mora and his colleagues analyzed a set of attributes upon which country-level fisheries could be evaluated. They pinpointed six parameters, including the scientific quality of management recommendations, the transparency of converting recommendations into policy, the enforcement of policies, the influence of subsidies, fishing effort, and the extent of fishing by foreign entities.
