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The globe’s fisheries have taken a deep nose-dive in the past few decades. But a new paper, to be published in tomorrow’s Science, finds that improved management is finally beginning to pull some stocks back from the brink.

Fish stocks increased in five out of the 10 systems studied, the authors report in the two-year study.

“This paper shows that our oceans are not a lost cause,” lead study author Boris Worm, of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, said in a prepared statement. “It’s only a start—but it gives me hope that we have the ability to bring over-fishing under control.”

In 2006, Worm had predicted a full collapse of global fisheries by 2048.

Worm and his 18 co-authors used data from catch reports, scientific surveys, stock assessments, modeling and other sources to try to get a clearer picture of the fisheries statuses than previous studies had achieved. They cautioned, though, that the areas studied were primarily in developed countries with active management and strong enforcement in place. The fish stocks that had shown the most improvement were in Alaska and New Zealand.

“Management efforts must be customized to the place and the people,” co-author Beth Fulton, of CSIRO, said in a prepared statement. “There are no silver bullet solutions.” But the authors did find that a combination of efforts, including economic incentives, ocean zoning and catch quotas, was the most effective in helping stem over-fishing.

The authors also acknowledge that curtailing catch quantities “can be painful for fishermen in the short term,” co-author Trevor Branch, of the University of Washington, said in a prepared statement. “But in the long term it benefits fish, fishermen and our ocean ecosystems as a whole.”

Image of New Zealand fishing boat courtesy of New Zealand Seafood Industry Council

6 Comments

1. 1. jonnypeace 06:45 PM 7/30/09

   This is great news. It does leave out the effects on the fishermen, though, especially the deckhands, who can get displaced by fishing quotas.
   
   There's a great story this week in High Country News that delves into catch shares, and the effects, bad and good. Interesting read.
   
   http://www.hcn.org/issues/41.13/the-most-cooked-up-catch
   

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2. 2. Bops 11:21 PM 7/30/09

   We're lucky there's still some fish left to catch. I don't see any problem in having more saltwater fish farms. So you "farm fish" for a new job. (All the Cats... that eat fish food, even our Fish... eat fish food)
   
   
   
   

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3. 3. Bops 11:23 PM 7/30/09

   We're lucky there's still some fish left to catch. I don't see any problem in having more saltwater fish farms. So you "farm fish" for a new job. (All the Cats... that eat fish food, even our Fish... eat fish food)
   
   
   
   

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4. 4. Scotty 02:37 AM 7/31/09

   What is wrong with this statement?
   A field of pure energy in complete equilibrium is disturbed and creates the universe as it seeks to regain it's equilibrium. When attained the material universe will have ended.

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5. 5. Amandine 06:32 AM 7/31/09

   The key thing is to find out the size of the population that results in the best growth rate and allow fishing to reduce the population to that point and no more than that. From studying ecology in biology class, population growth follows a logistic curve, and that point would be at the point of inflection. Teach this to those within the fishing industry, and they would be interested because the stocks would be able to replenish themselves quickly and recover, so it has both commercial and conservational interests.

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6. 6. dobermanmacleod 12:31 AM 8/4/09

   Sorry to be a pessimist, but in my opinion Worm was probably closer to reality in his first dire prediction:
   
   http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/02/health/webmd/main2147223.shtml
   
   Salt-Water Fish Extinction Seen By 2048
   Study By Ecologists, Economists Predicts Collapse of World Ocean Ecology
   
   The apocalypse has a new date: 2048.That's when the world's oceans will be empty of fish, predicts an international team of ecologists and economists. The cause: the disappearance of species due to overfishing, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change. The study by Boris Worm, PhD, of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, -- with colleagues in the U.K., U.S., Sweden, and Panama -- was an effort to understand what this loss of ocean species might mean to the world. The researchers analyzed several different kinds of data. Even to these ecology-minded scientists, the results were an unpleasant surprise. "I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are -- beyond anything we suspected," Worm says in a news release. "This isn't predicted to happen. This is happening now," study researcher Nicola Beaumont, PhD, of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, U.K., says in a news release. "If biodiversity continues to decline, the marine environment will not be able to sustain our way of life. Indeed, it may not be able to sustain our lives at all," Beaumont adds. Already, 29% of edible fish and seafood species have declined by 90% -- a drop that means the collapse of these fisheries. But the issue isn't just having seafood on our plates. Ocean species filter toxins from the water. They protect shorelines. And they reduce the risks of algae blooms such as the red tide. "A large and increasing proportion of our population lives close to the coast; thus the loss of services such as flood control and waste detoxification can have disastrous consequences," Worm and colleagues say.

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