July 3, 2019 — Global fishing fleets have exploded in size and power since the 1950s, even as it takes more and more effort to catch fewer fish, according to recent research.
And while reducing fishing effort overall could lead to greater catches that require less work, achieving that goal is no simple task.
Between 1950 and 2015, the number of vessels plying the world’s waters doubled from 1.7 million to 3.7 million, while the amount of collective engine power of all vessels surged from 25 GW to 145 GW, with the portion of the world’s vessels that are motorized drastically increasing.
But the amount of fish caught for the effort expended – the catch per unit effort – dropped for most countries to one-fifth of what it was in 1950, according to a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. And there could be one million additional motorized vessels by 2050 if current trends continue, according to the study.
“The stress we put on the oceans’ resources is rather large, and management needs to react – and we see some of that, but not yet globally,” Yannick Rousseau, a doctoral researcher at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania and the lead author on the study, told SeafoodSource.