The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020

YEAR
RE
LAT
IV
E 
B, 
U 
AN
D 
CATC
H
0
1980
1970
1990
2000
2010
2020
B/B
MSY
Catch/mean catch
U/U
MSY
1
B = biomass; B
MSY
= biomass that can produce maximum sustainable yield (MSY); U =fishing pressure; U
MSY
= fishing pressure at MSY. 
NOTE: Values are rescaled to the median in years of high coverage. All stocks are given equal weight. Circles denote years 1995 and 2005. Shaded regions denote 95% finite 
population corrected confidence bounds. 
SOURCE: FAO.
GEOMETRIC MEAN BIOMASS B/B
MSY
, U/U
MSY
AND CATCH / MEAN CATCH, 1970–2016, 
ESTIMATED BY A STATE-SPACE MODEL
1
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
reviewed options for improved assessment of 
inland fisheries. 
Trends
Based on FAO’s inland fishery catch statistics 
for the decade 2007–2016, the aggregated global 
trend is one of steady growth. This global 
trend in inland fisheries production may be 
misleading, as it shows a continuous increase 
over time. Some of this increase can be attributed 
to improved reporting and assessment at 
the country level and may not be increased 
production. The improvement in reporting may 
also mask trends in individual countries where 
fisheries are declining. 
To establish how this global inland fishery catch 
trend was composed, an analysis was made of 
individual country catch for the decade 2007–2016. 
Analysis at the national level (using the 
Mann–Kendall test for trend analysis, 90 percent 
confidence level) can indicate the catch trend 
of individual countries and thus the influence 
this has on the global inland fishery catch trend. 
This allows countries that are contributing 
positively to growth in inland fisheries to be 
identified, versus those countries for which inland 
fishery catch has no clear trend or is declining. 
It was not possible to include all the 
153 countries that have an inland fishery catch. 
FIGURE 22
ESTIMATED INLAND FISHERY CATCH ALLOCATED TO MAJOR HYDROLOGIC REGIONS
AND THE RIVER BASINS IN WHICH IT WAS PRODUCED, EXPRESSED AS A PERCENTAGE
OF THE GLOBAL TOTAL INLAND CATCH
0–0.1
0.1–0.25
0.25–0.5
0.5–1
1–3
3–6
6–9
9–12
12–16
LEGEND: White = no significant catch; lightest green = < 0.1% and darkest green = 14–18% of the global total inland fishery catch.
NOTE: Retained recreational catches not included.
SOURCE: Adapted from unpublished data from Hull International Fisheries Institute; FAO FishstatJ.
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PART 1 
WORLD REVIEW
This is because some countries do not report 
with sufficient regularity to FAO, requiring 
estimation of their national catch. In order to 
base the trend analysis on national reports (and 
not FAO estimates), the analysis excluded those 
countries that reported inland fishery catch 
to FAO seven or fewer times over the decade. 
The 43 countries so excluded represented 
15.1 percent (1 756 309 tonnes) of the global 
inland fishery catch for 2016. For the remaining 
110 countries, a Mann–Kendall trend analysis 
(90 percent confidence level) was performed 
to establish the trend in reported production 
(
Table 15
).
TABLE 14
PERCENTAGE OF GLOBAL FISH CATCH ALLOCATED TO MAJOR HYDROLOGICAL/RIVER BASIN
Basin
Percentage of 
global catch
Basin
Percentage of 
global catch
1 Mekong (including Tonlé Sap Lake)
15.18
31 Orinoco
0.59
2 Nile (including Lake Victoria)
9.70
32 Zambezi (excluding Lake Malawi/
Shire sub-basins)
0.57
3 Ayeyarwady
7.82
33 Mahanadi (India)
0.52
4 Yangtze
6.83
34 Volta
0.50
5 Brahmaputra River and floodplains
5.52
35 Gulf of Guinea
0.50
6 Amazon
4.26
36 Amur
0.49
7 Ganges
3.51
37 Sabarmati (India)
0.46
8 Xun Jiang (Pearl)
3.27
38 Sri Lanka (all basins)
0.44
9 China coast
2.75
39 La Plata Basin (including Parana River)
0.42
10 Hong (Red)
2.46
40 India – south coast
0.41
11 Chao Phraya
2.37
41 Java – Timor (Indonesia, Timor-Leste)
0.38
12 Niger
2.13
42 South peninsular Thailand (sub-basins)
0.34
13 Yasai (India)
1.64
43 Cauvery (India)
0.29
14 Indus
1.56
44 Volga
0.28
15 Sumatra (Indonesia)
1.42
45 Angola – coast
0.25
16 Philippine archipelago
1.33
46 India – west coast
0.23
17 Salween
1.27
47 Bay of Bengal – northeast coast
0.23
18 Krishna (India)
1.23
48 Finland (all basins)
0.23
19 Godavari (India) 
1.20
49 Brahmani
0.22
20 Lake Tanganyika
1.09
50 Japan (all basins)
0.21
21 Mexican basins
0.99
51 Limpopo
0.20
22 Lake Chad
0.96
52 Senegal
0.20
23 Congo (excluding Lake Tanganyika)
0.94
53 Madagascar (all basins)
0.17
24 Pennar (India)
0.94
54 Danube
0.16
25 Kalimantan (Indonesia)
0.92
55 Ob
0.14
26 Lake Malawi/Nyasa
0.92
56 Laurentian Great Lakes
0.13
27 Caspian Sea
0.76
57 Sulawesi (Indonesia)
0.13
28 Huang He (Yellow)
0.71
58 Tocantins
0.11
29 Ziya He
0.71
59 Mahakam River
0.10
30 India – east coast
0.68
60 India – northeast coast
0.10
SOURCE: FAO.
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THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 
2020
Thirty-seven countries indicated an increasing 
production trend over the decade, representing 
58.7 percent of global inland fish catch (
Figure 22
). 
The major drivers of this trend were China, 
India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Russian 
Federation and Mexico. 
Twenty-eight countries indicated decreasing 
production, representing 5.9 percent of global 
inland fish catch, with the trend driven by 
Brazil, Thailand, Viet Nam and Turkey. All four 
of these countries have significant aquaculture 
production. Inland fisheries remain extremely 
important at the subnational level in these 
countries (e.g. countries in the Mekong and the 
Amazon basins); hence, this decline should not 
be a cause for complacency.
Twenty-seven countries demonstrated stable 
catches, indicating that there is little or no 
variation in their reported catch trend. The major 
contributors to group are the United Republic 
of Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the 
Congo, Mali and Kazakhstan. The group 
represents 7.7 percent of global inland fish catch. 
The remaining 17 countries had no discernible 
trend of increase or decrease in their catch. 
These countries represent 12.6 percent of global 
inland fish catch, and the group is dominated by 
Bangladesh and Egypt, followed by Zambia.
The conclusion of this analysis is that growth in 
global inland fisheries is driven by 34 countries, 
and of these, about 8 relatively large producers 
drive this trend. The 24 countries reporting 
declining catches represent a relatively low 
contribution to global production, but some of 
these have significant inland food fisheries that 
are locally important. 
n
FISH UTILIZATION
AND PROCESSING 
Fisheries and aquaculture production is highly 
diversified in terms of species, processing and 
product forms destined for food or non-food uses. 
As fish is a highly perishable food, particular 
care is required at harvesting and all along the 
supply chain in order to preserve fish quality and 
nutritional attributes, and to avoid contamination, 
loss and waste. In this context, many countries 
TABLE 15
PRODUCTION TRENDS AND THE RELATIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE GLOBAL CATCH
Catch trend,
2007–2016
Number of 
countries
Aggregate catch