September 27, In a world’s-first study of the global state of coral reef fisheries, a team of researchers estimates that about half of the world’s reefs failed at least one of two key sustainability tests: either their fish stocks are depleted to dangerously low levels, or ongoing fishing pressure exceeds the fish stocks’ capacity to recover.
A worldwide fishing crisis in the late 20th century made headlines as commercial stocks of Peruvian anchovies, Atlantic and Scandinavian herring and Northern cod plummeted. But by preventing overfishing, effective, science-based management improved stocks dramatically. However, fishing for a single species is much less common on coral reefs, where fishers often use methods that target large numbers of species whose biology is very different and often poorly characterized. For such “multi-species fisheries”, it has always been challenging to determine if overfishing is taking place. The new study offers an innovative way forward.