ISSN 1198-6727 Fisheries Centre Research Reports 2007 Volume 15 Number 2 RECONSTRUCTION OF MARINE FISHERIES CATCHES FOR KEY COUNTRIES AND REGIONS (1950-2005) Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Canada RECONSTRUCTION OF MARINE FISHERIES CATCHES FOR KEY COUNTRIES AND REGIONS (1950-2005) Edited by Dirk Zeller and Daniel Pauly Fisheries Centre Research Reports 15(2) 163 pages © published 2007 by The Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia 2202 Main Mall Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6T 1Z4 ISSN 1198-6727 Fisheries Centre Research Reports 15(2) 2007 RECONSTRUCTION OF MARINE FISHERIES CATCHES FOR KEY COUNTRIES AND REGIONS (1950-2005) Edited by Dirk Zeller and Daniel Pauly CONTENTS Page Director’s Foreword...........................................................................................................................................1 Canada’s arctic marine fish catches ................................................................................................................. 3 Shawn Booth and Paul Watts Marine fish catches in North Siberia (Russia, FAO Area 18) ......................................................................... 17 Daniel Pauly and Wilf Swartz National conflict and fisheries: Reconstructing marine fisheries catches for Mozambique .........................35 Jennifer L. Jacquet and Dirk Zeller Putting the ‘United’ in the United Republic of Tanzania: Reconstructing marine fisheries catches ........... 49 Jennifer L. Jacquet and Dirk Zeller Reconstructing catches of marine commercial fisheries for Brazil ................................................................61 Kátia M. F. Freire and Thiago L. S. Oliveira A Reconstruction of Colombia’s marine fisheriescatches.............................................................................. 69 Jeffrey Wielgus, Dalila Caicedo-Herrera and Dirk Zeller Fisheries catch statistics for Mexico................................................................................................................81 Francisco Arreguín-Sánchez and Enrique Arcos-Huitrón Reconstructed catches in the Mauritanian EEZ ...........................................................................................105 Didier Gascuel, Dirk Zeller, Mahfoud O. Taleb Sidi and Daniel Pauly Reconstruction of Greek marine fisheries landings: National versus FAO statistics .................................. 121 Athanassios Tsikliras, Dimitrios Moutopoulos and Konstantinos Stergiou Multivariate analysis of fisheries catch per day in Greek waters .................................................................139 Konstantinos Stergiou, Athanasios Machias, Stylianos Somarakis and Argyris Kapantagakis Country disaggregation of catches of former Yugoslavia .............................................................................149 Yvette Rizzo and Dirk Zeller Country disaggregation of catches of the former Soviet Union (USSR) ...................................................... 157 Dirk Zeller and Yvette Rizzo A Research Report from the Fisheries Centre at UBC 163 pages © Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, 2007 FISHERIES CENTRE RESEARCH REPORTS ARE ABSTRACTED IN THE FAO AQUATIC SCIENCES AND FISHERIES ABSTRACTS (ASFA) ISSN 1198-6727 Reconstruction of marine fisheries catches for key countries and regions (1950-2005), Zeller & Pauly (eds.) 1 DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD When, in 1998, I published a short paper providing “[A] rationale for reconstructing catch time series”, I thought that the proposed concepts and methodology would need to be applied only to countries and regions (e.g., the Caribbean) not well covered in the global FAO database of fisheries landings. Now, 10 years later, a rather different view of global fisheries statistics has emerged: • IUU (i.e., Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) fisheries catches, which are now perceived to be quite large, have moved to the centre stage in the consciousness of fisheries managers worldwide, and get regular coverage in the international media; • Catch reconstructions performed for various countries throughout the world, many under the guidance of Dr. Dirk Zeller, this report’s senior editor, show that the statistics supplied to FAO by many countries, large and small, underestimate their likely true catch (i.e., reported landings + IUU) by a factor of 2 or more. While the illegal catches of industrial fisheries (which probably contribute most of the ‘I’ in IUU) are rather difficult to document, the mostly unreported catches of small-scale fisheries can be inferred from fisher number, and/or fish consumption data. Hence, catch reconstructions tend to boost catches from the small-scale sector, which is particularly neglected in the global FAO data set. The neglect of small-scale fisheries has a strong effect on fisheries policy. Many countries, especially in the developing world, pay little attention to their small-scale fisheries, in the mistaken belief that they contribute little to their national economy and food security. Hence, these countries fail to devote resources to the study of these fisheries, and hence their catches remain un- or substantially under- reported to FAO, where they indeed appear to contribute little, thus perpetuating the problem. The only way to get out of this vicious circle is to actually reconstruct national catches from independent data if possible, or by complementing the FAO data. This report presents both types of reconstructions. Also, two contributions are presented which disaggregate the catches of the ex-USSR and ex-Yugoslavia such that the republics that emerged from the dissolution of these multi-ethnic states are treated as if they had always existed (at least since 1950, when FAO’s global statistical fisheries system began). This will enable one to treat, e.g., Russia, or Croatia, as any fisheries nations, i.e., building on fisheries catch data going back several decades, and allowing for analysis of long-term trends. It may be useful to stress again that reconstructions of the sort presented here do not claim to provide ‘true catches’. ‘Truth’ must remain elusive. But the catches presented in this report certainly represent an improvement over the present situation, and could thus be considered to move towards the ‘likely true’ catch levels. And often, this is all we can hope for: to improve on things. Daniel Pauly, Director, Fisheries Centre Canada’s arctic marine fish catches, Booth & Watts 3 CANADA’S ARCTIC MARINE FISH CATCHES1 Shawn Bootha and Paul Wattsb a Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC; e-mail: [email protected] b Institute of Arctic Ecophysiology, Churchill MB; e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Canada’s arctic marine fisheries occur within FAO statistical areas 18 and 21. Although many of the communities in these areas rely on the sea, only commercial data have been part of the formal reporting procedure. Small-scale fisheries data, including subsistence fisheries, have not been formerly assessed, nor do they form part of the national and global reports. Here, we present reported and estimated catch data for the period 1950 to 2001 for the commercial and small-scale sectors, including catches that were formerly used for feeding sled-dog teams. During this period, it is estimated that small-scale marine fisheries were 27 times larger than the reported commercial catches suggest, and small-scale catches declined by 56 % overall. Excluding the sled-dog food component, the small-scale catches destined for human consumption increased from approximately 523 tonnes in 1950 to an average of nearly 1,200 tonnes in the 1970s, but declined to approximately 900 tonnes by the early 2000s. Arctic marine fisheries catches for the small-scale sector in terms of population (kg·person-1·year-1) reached an estimated peak of 268 kg in 1960 and were found to be 20.5 kg at the end of the study period. INTRODUCTION Canada’s arctic fisheries occur within FAO statistical areas 18 and 21 (Figure 1). Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is Canada’s federal agency responsible for fishery statistics, and it reports catch data for Canada, including the Central and Arctic region. The Central and Arctic region includes the coastal waters of the Yukon, the marine and inland waters of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, Ontario and the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, while Quebec is its own separate region (DFO, 2006). However, existing reports allow for the estimation of the marine fish component of catches from arctic waters to be separated from the inland freshwater catches. The present study reports on marine fish catches taken by communities that fish the arctic waters of Canada (commercial and small-scale) for the period 1950-2001. One purpose of the study is to provide an estimate of marine fish catches to serve as a scientific baseline in the face of global warming, while both data and trends may also be of assistance in community and intercommunity development strategies. Although several studies and reports have been published previously, there has been no comprehensive review of potential historical catches, combining both small-scale catches with reported commercial catches, and there has been no expansion to cover the entire Canadian arctic. Productivity in the marine waters of northern Canada is limited by low nutrient availability in the upper water layer caused by vertical stability, a lack of upwelling and the freeze/thaw cycle which dilutes available nutrients. In Hudson Bay, vertical stability is amplified