PART 1
WORLD
REVIEW
despite the recent downward revision of its
catches for the years 2009–2016 (
Box 1
) and
a decline in reported catches in 2017–2018.
China accounted for about 15 percent of total
global captures in 2018, more than the total
captures of the second- and third-ranked
countries combined. The top seven capture
producers (China, Indonesia, Peru, India, the
Russian
Federation, the United States of America
and Viet Nam) accounted for almost 50 percent
of total global capture production (
Figure 5
);
while the top 20 producers accounted for almost
74 percent of total global capture production.
Catch trends in marine and inland waters,
which represent 87.4 percent and 12.6 percent,
respectively, of the global production in the last
three years, are discussed further below.
Marine capture production
Global total marine catches increased from
81.2 million tonnes in 2017 to 84.4 million
tonnes in 2018, but
were still below the peak
catches of 86.4 million tonnes in 1996. Catches of
anchoveta (
Engraulis ringens
) by Peru and Chile
accounted for most of the increase in catches in
2018, following relatively low catches for this
species in recent years.
Even when taking into consideration catches
of anchoveta – which are often substantial yet
highly variable because
of the influence of El
Niño events – total marine catches have been
relatively stable since the mid-2000s, ranging
from 78 million tonnes to 81 million tonnes per
year, following a decline from the peak catches
of the late-1990s.
Despite the relatively stable trend in total
marine captures, catches
of major species have
undergone marked variations over the years, as
well as fluctuations in the catches among the top
producing countries – notably Indonesia, whose
marine catches increased from less than 4 million
tonnes in the early 2000s to over 6.7 million
tonnes in 2018, although improvements in the
country’s data collection and reporting partially
account for the increase.
In 2018, the top 7 producers were responsible
for over 50 percent
of the total marine captures,
of which China accounted for 15 percent of the
world total (
Table 2
), followed by Peru (8 percent),
Indonesia (8 percent), the Russian Federation
(6 percent), the United States of America
(6 percent), India (4 percent), and Viet Nam
(4 percent).
While China remains the world’s top producer
of marine captures, its
catches declined from an
average 13.8 million tonnes per year between
2015 and 2017 to 12.7 million tonnes in 2018.
A continuation of a catch reduction policy
beyond its Thirteenth Five-Year Plan (2016–2020)
is expected to result in further decreases in
coming years (see the section Fisheries and
aquaculture projections, p. 164).
In 2018, China reported about 2.26 million
tonnes from its “distant-water fishery”, but
provided details on species and fishing area
only for those catches marketed in China (about
40 percent of the total for distant-water catches).
In the absence
of more complete information,
the remaining 1.34 million tonnes were entered
in the FAO database under “marine fishes not
elsewhere included” in Major Fishing Area 61,
the Northwest Pacific, possibly overstating the
catches occurring in this area.
Thus, while the estimates of total catches
for China in the FAO database are generally
considered to be complete, improvements
are needed to more accurately assign China’s
distant-water
fishery catches by area, and the
disaggregation of catches by species.
The FAO global marine capture database includes
catches for more than 1 700 species (including
“not elsewhere included” categories), of which
finfish represent about 85 percent of total marine
capture production, with small pelagics as the
main group, followed
by gadiformes and tuna
and tuna-like species.
In 2018, catches of anchoveta once again made
it the top species, at over 7.0 million tonnes
per year, after relatively lower catches recorded
in recent years. Alaska pollock (
Theragra
chalcogramma
) was second, at 3.4 million tonnes,
while skipjack tuna (
Katsuwonus pelamis
)
ranked third for the ninth consecutive year, at
3.2 million tonnes (
Table 3
).
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