The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020

particularly in the western part of the South 
China Sea. The high reported catches have 
8
With the main aim to support fisheries management, the FAO 
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean provides a 
regional assessment of the status of priority commercial stocks in the 
Mediterranean and Black Sea. This assessment is based on analytical 
scientific assessments of management units (a combination of priority 
species and geographical subareas of interest) covering about 
50 percent of the catches. The assessment also indicates that, in 2016, 
a high percentage (78 percent) of priority commercial stocks assessed 
were considered to be outside sustainable fishing levels, in line with the 
results presented in 
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture
, but 
also suggests that this percentage has decreased by about 10 percent 
since 2014 (FAO, 2018b).
probably been maintained through expansion 
of fishing to new areas or through changes in 
trophic levels of targeted species. The tropical 
and subtropical characteristics of this region 
and the limited data availability make stock 
assessment challenging with great uncertainties. 
Overall, 77.6 percent of the assessed fish stocks 
in the Western Central Pacific were fished within 
biologically sustainable levels in 2017.
The Eastern Indian Ocean continues to show a 
steady increase in catches, reaching an all-time 
high of 7 million tonnes in 2017. It is unclear 
whether the continued increase in catches was 
caused by changes in fishing patterns and 
resource productivity or an artefact created 
by problems in catch data collection and 
reporting. The monitoring of capture fisheries 
production is particularly problematic in the 
Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea regions owing 
to inherent characteristics of small-scale and 
multispecies fisheries. Due to data limitations, 
the status of most stocks in the region has not 
been well assessed (involving high levels of 
uncertainty) and should be treated with caution. 
The available information indicates that stocks 
of toli shad (
Tenualosa toli
), croaker and drums 
(Sciaenidae), hairtails (
Trichiurus
), catfish 
(Ariidae),
 
sardinellas (
Sardinella 
spp.)
 
and Indian 
oil sardine (
Sardinella longiceps
)
 
are likely to 
be overfished, but anchovies (Engraulidae), 
hilsa shad (
Tenualosa ilisha
), Indian mackerel 
(
Rastrelliger kanagurta
), scads (
Decapterus
spp.), 
banana prawn (
Penaeus merguiensis
), giant tiger 
prawn (
Penaeus monodon
), squids (Sepiidae) 
and cuttlefish (Sepiolidae) are being fished 
sustainably. The current assessment indicates 
that 68.6 percent of the assessed stocks in 
the Eastern Indian Ocean were fished within 
biologically sustainable levels in 2017. 
In the Western Indian Ocean, total landings 
continued to increase and reached 5.3 million 
tonnes in 2017. Recent assessments have shown 
that the main Penaeidae shrimp stocks fished in 
the South West Indian Ocean, a main source of 
export revenue, continue to show clear signs of 
overfishing, prompting the countries concerned 
to introduce more stringent management 
measures. The Southwest Indian Ocean Fisheries 
Commission continues to update the assessment 
of the status of the main fished stocks in the 
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PART 1 
WORLD REVIEW
region. The 2017 assessment estimated that 
66.7 percent of the assessed stocks in the Western 
Indian Ocean were fished within biologically 
sustainable levels, while 33.3 percent were at 
biologically unsustainable levels.
Prospects for rebuilding the world’s marine fisheries
In 2017, 34.2 percent of the fish stocks of the 
world’s marine fisheries were classified as 
overfished. This continuous increasing trend 
(
Figure 19
) warrants further effort and solid actions 
to combat overfishing. Overfishing – stock 
abundance fished to below the level that can 
produce maximum sustainable yield (MSY) – not 
only causes negative impacts on biodiversity 
and ecosystem functioning, but also reduces fish 
production, which subsequently leads to negative 
social and economic consequences. One study 
(Ye 
et al
., 2013) has estimated that rebuilding 
overfished stocks to the biomass that enables 
them to deliver MSY could increase fisheries 
production by 16.5 million tonnes and annual 
rent by US$32 billion. This would increase the 
contribution of marine fisheries to the food 
security, economies and well-being of coastal 
communities. The situation seems more critical 
for some highly migratory, straddling and other 
fisheries resources that are fished solely or