Sustaining Marine Fisheries (1999) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-10
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Although in recent years total fish production has increased faster than the human population, the total from marine-capture fisheries has increased little if at all. To evaluate whether current marine-capture fisheries are sustainable, to determine to what degree marine ecosystems are affected by fishing, and to assess whether an ecosystem approach to fishery management can help achieve 1Ecosystem goods and services are those ecosystem products and processes that directly benefit humans.
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But even a depleted resource can be used indefinitely at an undesirably low level, and perhaps with undesirable consequences. Therefore, by sustainable fishing, the committee means fishing activities that do not cause or lead to undesirable changes in biological and economic productivity, biological diversity, or ecosystem structure and functioning from one human generation to the next.
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From page 3... ...
However, considering species interactions, variations in the ability of individual species to withstand fishing mortality, global overfishing, and ecosystem degradation, it is possible that, under present management and fishery practices, the current catch cannot be exceeded or perhaps even continued on a sustainable basis. Considering individual stocks, about 30 percent globally are overfished,4 depleted, or recovering, and 44 percent are being fished at or near the maximum long-term potential catch rate.
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Large-scale mariculture activities (farming of fish, shrimp, and other marine organisms) -- especially if they are poorly managed -- also can affect marine ecosystems through damage to coastal wetlands and nearshore ecosystems associated with the construction of shore-based or nearshore facilities; through contamination of the water with food, antibiotics, and waste; and through the introduction of diseases and exotic genotypes.
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Although societies have been concerned about the effects of fishing on particular populations and species for centuries, recent recognition of the ecosystem effects of fishing has resulted in part from research on ecosystem approaches and has led to calls for the adoption of ecosystem approaches to fishery management to achieve sustainability at a high level of productivity of fish and of ecosystem goods and services. The committee concludes that a significant overall reduction in fishing mortality is the most comprehensive and immediate ecosystem-based approach to rebuilding and sustaining fisheries and marine ecosystems.
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Expanding fisheries to include previously unfished or lightly fished species, such as deep-sea species, is unlikely to lead to large, sustainable increases in marine capture fisheries. Therefore, the committee recommends that management agencies adopt regulations and policies that strongly favor conservative and precautionary management and that penalize overfishing, as called for in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 and the 1996 amendments to that act, often referred to as the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996.
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Dealing with Uncertainty Fisheries are managed in an arena of uncertainty that includes an incomplete understanding of and ability to predict fish population dynamics, interactions among species, effects of environmental factors on fish populations, and effects of human actions. Therefore, successful fishery management must incorporate and deal with uncertainties and errors.
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Wholly or largely pelagic species move according to ocean currents or other factors that are not necessarily related to fixed topographic structures and are thus likely to benefit less from small protected areas. The design and implementation of marine protected areas should involve fishers to ensure that they believe the resulting systems will protect their longterm interests and to improve operational integrity.
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Marine protected areas are not alternatives to other techniques of fishery management and to the other recommendations in this report. They should be considered as only one of a suite of important ecosystem approaches to achieve sustainable fisheries and protect marine ecosystems.
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More information is needed on the effects and effectiveness of various forms of rights-based management approaches and other management regimes, on the way people behave in response to different economic and social incentives, and on barriers to cooperation and sharing of information. The committee recommends research into the roles of communities in fisheries management, including the use of community-based quotas and other assignments of rights to communities, and explorations into the feasibility of granting management responsibilities to those engaged in a particular fishery, regardless of their geographical community ("virtual communities")
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