The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020

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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
Fishery management aims to protect and conserve 
fishery resources and ecosystems, and to provide a 
rationale for their sustainable utilization. It seeks to do 
so by drawing on science-based advice, stakeholder 
engagement and regional cooperation, and by 
relying on a system of agreed rules and regulations 
coupled with an appropriate monitoring, surveillance 
and enforcement system. All countries around the 
world have specific institutions for exercising such 
management authority within their exclusive economic 
zones, and many are part of regional and international 
fisheries bodies and management organizations to 
manage shared stocks and fisheries in areas beyond 
national jurisdictions. These fishery authorities should 
be in place when fishing starts and play important 
roles in establishing legal and governance systems, 
developing management plans, and regulating 
fishing practices. How effective are current fishery 
management systems around the world? And what has 
been achieved through management regulation?
A recent paper
1
shows that, in the case of 
“assessed” stocks, the average fishing pressure 
increased and fish biomass declined on average until 
1995 when fishing pressure began to decrease. By 
2005, average biomass had started to increase and 
reached a level of biomass higher than expected to 
deliver maximum sustainable yields (MSY) in 2016. At 
the same time, fishing pressure has declined to levels 
below that which is expected to deliver MSY (see 
figure). This study builds on a decade-long international 
collaboration to assemble estimates of the status of fish 
stocks – or distinct populations of fish – around the 
world. These results are significant because they 
demonstrate that fisheries are being managed 
sustainably in some places and that fisheries 
management works, allowing fish stocks to recover. 
This gives credibility to the fishery managers and 
governments around the world that are willing to take 
strong action. The solution for fishery sustainability 
around the world is clear: implement effective fisheries 
management. At the peak in 1994, about 50 percent 
of all fish landed were from “assessed stocks”.
Fish are not isolated components of marine 
ecosystems. FAO has been promoting healthy fish 
stocks in the context of a systems approach, and 
examining the compounding impacts of fishing at the 
ecosystem level. One study
2
investigated the ecosystem-
level efficiency of fisheries in five large marine 
ecosystems (LMEs: North Sea, Barents Sea, Benguela 
Current, Baltic Sea and North East Continental Shelf of 
the United States of America) with respect to yield and 
an aggregate measure of ecosystem impact. They 
concluded that three of the five LMEs are efficient with 
respect to long-term yield and ecosystem impact and 
their efficiency has improved in the last 30 years, while 
the other two were inefficient but steadily improving. 
These results again show that effective management 
can improve and lead to ecosystem-level efficiency and 
achieve ecosystem-scale win-wins with respect to 
conservation and fishery production.
However, successes in fisheries sustainability have 
not been even. While developed countries are 
improving the way they manage their fisheries, 
developing countries face a worsening situation in 
terms of overcapacity, production per unit of effort 
and stock status.
3
Compared with regions that are 
intensively managed, regions with less strict fisheries 
management have, on average, threefold greater 
harvest rates, and their stocks have half the 
abundance of assessed stocks and are in poor 
shape.
1
The less-intense management is common in 
many developing nations, and the situation is fuelled 
by economic interdependences coupled with limited 
management and governance capacities.
3
The current 
successes accomplished in some countries and 
regions are not sufficient to reverse the global 
declining trend of overfished stocks. This uneven 
progress highlights an urgent need to replicate and 
re-adapt successful policies and measures in the light 
of the realities of specific fisheries, and to focus on 
creating mechanisms that can effectively implement 
policy and management regulations for sustainable 
fisheries and ecosystems. 
BOX 4
FISHERY MANAGEMENT DEMONSTRABLY INSTRUMENTAL IN IMPROVING STOCK STATUS
1
Hilborn, R., Amoroso, R.O., Anderson, C.M., Baum, J.K., Branch, T.A., Costello, C., de Moor, C.L., Faraj, A., Hively, D., Jensen, O.P., Kurota, H., Little, L.R., Mace, P., McClanahan, T., 
Melnychuk, M.C., Minto, C., Osio, G.C., Parma, A.M., Pons, M., Segurado, S., Szuwalski, C.S., Wilson, J.R. & Ye, Y. 2020. Effective fisheries management instrumental in improving fish 
stock status. 
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 117(4): 2218–2224 [online]. [Cited 6 February 2020].
2
Jacobsen. N.S., Burgess, M.G. & Andersen, K.H. 2017. Efficiency of fisheries is increasing at the ecosystem level. 
Fish and Fisheries
, 18(2): 199–211.
3
Ye, Y. & Gutierrez, N.L. 2017. Ending fishery overexploitation by expanding from local successes to globalized solutions. 
Nature Ecology and Evolution
, 1: 0179 [online].
[Cited 6 February 2020].
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PART 1 
WORLD REVIEW
addition to the effects of fishing, and they 
experience high inter- and intra-annual variation 
as a result. The fishing pressure exerted on an 
inland fishery is a function of: human population 
density; primary productivity and secondary 
production of the waterbody; accessibility of 
the fishery; and socio-economic dependence on 
inland fish and the availability of alternative 
foods and livelihoods. 
Both natural and anthropogenic environmental 
drivers affect aquatic habitats, water flows, 
habitat connectivity and water quality. 
Climate variability and seasonal effects also 
influence both short-term annual cycles 
and longer-term trends. Human activities in 
agriculture (including irrigation), urbanization, 
industry and damming all have strong impacts 
on water and aquatic ecosystems. The status 
of inland fisheries is driven by the interactions 
between all of these factors, typically within 
catchments and river basins, reflecting the 
linkage between water resources, aquatic 
ecosystems and fisheries.
A comprehensive overview of global inland 
fisheries was published by FAO in 2018 
(Funge-Smith, 2018); this document also 
BOX 4
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