Global fishing capacity and fishing effort from 1950 to 2012

Abstract

Global marine wild‐capture landings have remained relatively stable for >20 years; however, there is a lack of credible fishing capacity and effort information required to assess the sustainability and efficiency of the global fleet. As such, we estimated global fishing capacity and effort from 1950 to 2012 using a relatively comprehensive database developed by the FAO, supplemented by other data sources. Using random sampling techniques, we estimated the uncertainty surrounding many of our estimates enabling the identification of deficiencies and limitations. Global fishing capacity and effort increased rapidly from the late 1970s through to around 2010 before stabilizing. The Asian fleet is more than an order of magnitude larger than any other region in both capacity and effort, and continues to increase. Most other regions have stabilized, and there have been considerable declines in Europe and, to a lesser extent, in North America. Developed nations, as a whole, have decreased in both measures in the recent years and are responsible for the stabilization of the global trend. Developing and undeveloped countries are still increasing with the former having the largest fleet and showing the greatest relative increase with the socioeconomic impacts of reversing these trends likely to be high. The efficiency of the global fleet, in terms of watt days of fishing effort per tonnage of wild marine catch, is now less than in 1950 despite the considerable technological advances, and expansion throughout the world's oceans, that has occurred during this period of time.

Estimates of fishing gear loss rates at a global scale: A literature review and meta‐analysis

“…As a consequence, later studies included a larger proportion of less industrial- A possible additional and/or alternative explanation for the increase in gear losses with time is the significant increase in global fishing effort from the 1970s through 2010 and the stabilizing of this effort over the last decade (Bell, Watson, & Ye, 2017;Watson & Tidd, 2018). As a consequence, later studies included a larger proportion of less industrial- A possible additional and/or alternative explanation for the increase in gear losses with time is the significant increase in global fishing effort from the 1970s through 2010 and the stabilizing of this effort over the last decade (Bell, Watson, & Ye, 2017;Watson & Tidd, 2018).…”

Using otolith chronologies to understand long‐term trends and extrinsic drivers of growth in fisheries

“…Many fisheries worldwide are declining (Pauly and Zeller , Bell et al. ), and it is vital to develop methods to detect potential stressors. Long‐term ecological datasets establish baseline conditions, which can be used to identify and isolate possible causes of change from the baseline and provide context for natural variability (Hobbie et al.…”

Control mechanisms and ecosystem‐based management of fishery production

“… Catch by species/species group and country from 1950 to 2015 was extracted from the FAO global capture production dataset ( http://www.fao.org/). Fishing effort (kilowatt‐days) data by ecosystem from 1950 to 2012 (Bell, Watson, & Ye, ). Mean trophic level of the catch by ecosystem from 1950 to 2013 was provided by the Sea Around Us Project ( http://www.seaaroundus.org). The mean trophic level of fishery catches from an ecosystem tracks changes in the ensemble of exploited species in response to fishing pressure. Primary production by ecosystem downloaded from Sea Around Us ( http://www.seaaroundus.org), and the means calculated from the monthly estimates of primary production for the 10‐year period from 1998 to 2007 with a spatial resolution of 9 km by the Institute for Environment and Sustainability, EU Joint Research Center (JRC), Ispra, Italy. Annual sea surface temperature ( T ) °C by ecosystem calculated from the monthly T at a resolution of 4 km from 1981 to 2015 from the Oregon State University Ocean Productivity project ( http://www.science.oregonstate.edu/ocean.productivity/index.php). Surface area of each ecosystem was calculated using ESRI ArcGIS 10.3. …”