Marine Fisheries Overview Flashcards
Definition: Systematics/Taxonomy
Study of the diversity, relationships, and evolution of organisms and how to put names on them.
Definition: Fisheries
Study related to human use of aquatic organisms.
Describe the fisheries cycle
- Fishery growth – profit motivated
- Overcapitalization leads to overfishing (F > Fmsy)
- Stock becomes overfished (B < Bmsy)
- Fishing efforts reduced
- Stock rebuilds
Capture Fisheries History
- Dates to hunter/gatherer societies
- Oceans and lakes are the last areas where wild capture provides a significant fraction of dietary protein.
Development of Marine Fisheries
- Initially, only available to coastal communities. Seasonality had to be considered.
- Preservation (drying, salting) allowed for distant capture
- Development of traps and nets (Herrings, sardines, tuna)
- Increase in power -> oars->sails->steam->combustion — this lead to even larger nets and greater distance to travel for fishing grounds
- Developments in preservation
— Canning - mid 1800s
—– Freezing - mid 1900s - fishes for non-food uses (reduction fisheries)
—- This increased the global finish aquaculture production significantly in the 1980s - Distant water fisheries, which impacted the concept of territorial waters
- High seas fisheries - rapid expansion since 1950’s
Starting in 2014….
aquaculture production (including algae) exceeded capture fishery production in terms of product available for human consumption.
2020 Total production of Global Fisheries
214 Million Metric Tons (MMT)
How much of the 2020 total production was capture fisheries?
90.3 MMT - $141 billion
How much of the 2020 total production was aquaculture fisheries?
122.6 MMT - steadily increasing over the past 55 years
What is the percentage of people that use fish as a source of protein (global)
1992 - 14.9%
2019 - 17% (7% of total protein)
Fish provide….
3.3 billion people with a least 20% of animal protein intake
What is the primary difference between fishes and non-fish fisheries
Biomass - Invertebrates have a much smaller biomass but a large market value.
What are some reasons why capture production is perceived to be maxed out?
- A percentage of countries not reporting
- Landing data not available for many artisanal fisheries — developing countries lack infrastructure
- Bycatch is poorly recorded/reported
Pauly and Zeller (2016) data shows
- Discards represented 10-20% total reconstructed catches until 2000 and then dips down to <10% after 2000
What is the reason for the potential dip in Pauly and Zellers’s (2016) data?
Expanding markets – they are landing fishes they would not have landed before the year 2000.
