Global Inland Capture and Culture Finfisheries Follow Different Trends When Evaluated by the Human Development Index

To assess whether and how socioeconomic factors might be influencing global freshwater finfisheries, inland fishery data reported to the FAO between 1950 and 2015 were grouped by capture and culture, country human development index, plotted, and compared. We found that while capture inland finfishes have greatly increased on a global scale, this trend is being driven almost entirely by poorly developed (Tier-3) countries which also identify only 17% of their catch. In contrast, capture finfisheries have recently plateaued in moderately-developed (Tier-2) countries which are also identifying 16% of their catch but are dominated by a single country, China. In contrast, reported capture finfisheries are declining in well-developed (Tier-1) countries which identify nearly all (78%) of their fishes. Simultaneously, aquacultural activity has been increasing rapidly in both Tier-2 and Tier-3 countries, but only slowly in Tier-1 countries; remarkably, nearly all cultured species are being identified by all tier groups. These distinctly different trends suggest that socioeconomic factors influence how countries report and conduct capture finfisheries. Reported rapid increases in capture fisheries are worrisome in poorly developed countries because they cannot be explained and thus these fisheries cannot be managed meaningfully even though they depend on them for food. Our descriptive, proof-of-concept study suggests that socioeconomic factors should be considered in future, more sophisticated efforts to understand global freshwater fisheries which might include catch reconstruction.

Artificial upward trends in Greek marine landings: a case of presentist bias in European fisheries

According to the official landings as reported by the international databases for Greece, the declining trend of the Greek marine fisheries landings that had been continuous since the mid 1990s has been reversed during the last two years, with the total marine fisheries landings showing elevated catches after 2016. We claim that this upward trend is an artifact that is attributed to the combined reporting of the landings of additional fleets since 2016 that had been separately reported before and resulted in 20-30% inflation of the landings. In 2016, the Greek statistical authorities included the landings of 10 000 small-scale coastal vessels with engine horsepower lower than 20 HP together with the remaining coastal vessels, purse-seiners and trawlers whose landings formed the official reported Greek marine fisheries landings from 1970 to 2015. We acknowledge that this act of partial catch reconstruction improved the resolution of the landings and the officially reported values are now more realistic. However, the artificial, albeit inadvertent, inflation of the official Greek marine fisheries landings as they appear in international databases is a clear case of ‘presentist bias’ and may distort stock assessments and ecosystem modeling. As the currently misleading data stand, they are cause for substantial misinterpretation and analytical errors that can influence fisheries policy and have serious implications for fisheries management. We suggest that researchers should refrain from using the combined time-series and that a correction should be applied to the original time series (1970-2015) to account for the entire small-scale coastal fleet.

Reconstruction of Marine Fisheries Catches for the Republic of Malta (1950-2010)

The marine fisheries catches of Malta were reconstructed for the period 1950-2014, including for reported and previously unreported commercial large- and small-scale catches, unmonitored fisheries catches, i.e., subsistence and recreational fisheries, as well as major discards. The present study updates and improves a previous catch reconstruction for Malta for the 1950-2010 time period. Reconstructed marine fisheries catches for Malta are nearly 1.3 times the official landings reported by the FAO and national authorities on behalf of Malta, increasing from around 1,200 t·year-1 in the 1950s to 3,700 t·year-1 in the 2010s. The discrepancy between reported and reconstructed total catches is mostly due to the subsistence catches estimated, which here consist exclusively of on-board consumption and take-home catch of commercial fishers. While the Maltese fisheries statistical system includes procedures to estimate ‘unmonitored’ commercial landings, this contribution documents that it would be beneficial to also account for non-commercial catches.

Reconstructing Ireland’s marine fisheries catches: 1950-2010

The wasteful practice of discarding catch is one of the major problems associated with European fisheries. Despite this, estimates of discarded catch are not included in the ‘Official Catch Statistics’ database (1905 to present) collected and maintained by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Furthermore, removals through recreational sea angling and estimates of other forms of unreported landings are often also missing from this dataset. Here, total discarded catch and unreported landings made by Irish commercial fishing vessels, and the total amount of fish caught and retained through Irish sea angling activities within the Northeast Atlantic from 1950 to 2010 have been estimated. Total reconstructed catches were 19.3% and 20.9% higher than the officially recorded total landings as reported by ICES from the Northeast Atlantic, and those estimated as being from within the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), respectively. Discarded catch was proportionately the largest component of the reconstruction, representing 12.7% of the total catch within the Irish EEZ. The Irish catch reconstruction presented here is by no means assumed to represent the complete record of total removals and the authors encourage further efforts to improve upon this attempt. However, considering the current absence of estimated values for discarded catch, recreational removals and other unreported landings from officially and publicly reported data, we feel that our reconstruction provides an improved baseline estimate of more accurate total Irish marine fisheries catch that has not previously been made publicly available.

Reconstructing Ireland’s marine fisheries catches: 1950-2010

The wasteful practice of discarding catch is one of the major problems associated with European fisheries. Despite this, estimates of discarded catch are not included in the ‘Official Catch Statistics’ database (1905 to present) collected and maintained by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES). Furthermore, removals through recreational sea angling and estimates of other forms of unreported landings are often also missing from this dataset. Here, total discarded catch and unreported landings made by Irish commercial fishing vessels, and the total amount of fish caught and retained through Irish sea angling activities within the Northeast Atlantic from 1950 to 2010 have been estimated. Total reconstructed catches were 19.3% and 20.9% higher than the officially recorded total landings as reported by ICES from the Northeast Atlantic, and those estimated as being from within the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), respectively. Discarded catch was proportionately the largest component of the reconstruction, representing 12.7% of the total catch within the Irish EEZ. The Irish catch reconstruction presented here is by no means assumed to represent the complete record of total removals and the authors encourage further efforts to improve upon this attempt. However, considering the current absence of estimated values for discarded catch, recreational removals and other unreported landings from officially and publicly reported data, we feel that our reconstruction provides an improved baseline estimate of more accurate total Irish marine fisheries catch that has not previously been made publicly available.