What is a Fish Stocks Indicator?

What is Fish Stocks? Fish Stocks uses catch data to identify species being exploited above a sustainable level, risking stock depletion. For a given species Dangers to Fish Reproduction & Growth Overexploited (10-50%) Collapsed (<10%) Overfishing is harmful to marine life. Overfishing occurs in fisheries that have been exploited at levels that exceed the capacity for replacement by reproduction and growth of the exploited species. For a given species, stock that are caught after the year of peak catch and total 10 percent to 50 percent of the peak catch are considered overexploited. For a given species, stock that are caught after the year of peak catch and total less than 10 percent of the peak catch are considered collapsed. How do we know? Clearly define a local fish stock. This indicator calculates the number of Assess the catch of the overexploited and collapsed fish stocks divided by the total numbers of stocks per EEZ. stock, relative to the peak catch. Sea Around Us (SAU) defines a stock to be a taxon that occurs in the catch records for at least 5 consecutive years; over a minimum of 10 years time span, Second, SAU asseses the catch of the stock for every year, relative to the peak Sea catch. SAU defines five states of stock nautical miles status for a catch times series. 200 and which has a total catch in an area of EEZ at least 1,000 metric tons. Land Determine the number of 3 Sum all stocks and 4 stocks and their present as a percentage in catch. The EEZ Area percentages for each state. by Country by Year An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a seazone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights over its marine resources within 200 nautical miles from its coast. In some cases, countries have rights to their continental shelf if it extends beyond those 200 nautical miles. SAU creates a plot number of stocks by status by tallying the number of stocks in a particular state in a given year, and presenting these as percentages. Finally, the cumulative catch of stock by status in a given year is summed over all stocks and presented as a percentage in the catch by stock status graph. How is the world doing? !13% non-fully exploited 30% overexploited Fish as Major Food Sources Today, intensive fishing remains a critical environmental problem throughout much of the world, especially where countries perceive fishing as necessary for food security, a means to development, or a key 57% fully exploited economic asset. Environmental Performance Index References • Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nation (FAO), The state of world fisheries and aquaculture. http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i2727e/i2727e00.htm, 2012 • Grainger, R.J.R. 1999. Global trends in fisheries and aquaculture., in NOAA, Center for the Study of Marine Policy at the University of Delaware, The Ocean Govemance Group. Trends and Future Challenges for US National Ocean and Coastal Policy: Workshop Materials. Washington, D.C. p. 21-25. • Sea Around Us Project. http://www.seaaroundus.org • Ricker, W.E. 1975. Computation and interpretation of biological statistics of fish populations. Bull. Fish. Res. Board Canada 191, 382 p. Peak Year Catch