Management Effectiveness of the World’s Marine Fisheries Camilo Mora1,2*, Ransom A. Myers2{, Marta Coll2,3, Simone Libralato4, Tony J. Pitcher5, Rashid U. Sumaila6, Dirk Zeller6, Reg Watson6, Kevin J. Gaston7, Boris Worm2 1 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 3 Institut de Cie`nces del Mar, ICM-CSIC, Passeig Marı´tim de la Barceloneta, Barcelona, Spain, 4 Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimentale–OGS, Sgonico-Zgonik, Italy, 5 Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 6 Sea Around Us Project, Fisheries Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 7 Biodiversity and Macroecology Group, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom Abstract Ongoing declines in production of the world’s fisheries may have serious ecological and socioeconomic consequences. As a result, a number of international efforts have sought to improve management and prevent overexploitation, while helping to maintain biodiversity and a sustainable food supply. Although these initiatives have received broad acceptance, the extent to which corrective measures have been implemented and are effective remains largely unknown. We used a survey approach, validated with empirical data, and enquiries to over 13,000 fisheries experts (of which 1,188 responded) to assess the current effectiveness of fisheries management regimes worldwide; for each of those regimes, we also calculated the probable sustainability of reported catches to determine how management affects fisheries sustainability. Our survey shows that 7% of all coastal states undergo rigorous scientific assessment for the generation of management policies, 1.4% also have a participatory and transparent processes to convert scientific recommendations into policy, and 0.95% also provide for robust mechanisms to ensure the compliance with regulations; none is also free of the effects of excess fishing capacity, subsidies, or access to foreign fishing. A comparison of fisheries management attributes with the sustainability of reported fisheries catches indicated that the conversion of scientific advice into policy, through a participatory and transparent process, is at the core of achieving fisheries sustainability, regardless of other attributes of the fisheries. Our results illustrate the great vulnerability of the world’s fisheries and the urgent need to meet well-identified guidelines for sustainable management; they also provide a baseline against which future changes can be quantified. Citation: Mora C, Myers RA, Coll M, Libralato S, Pitcher TJ, et al. (2009) Management Effectiveness of the World’s Marine Fisheries. PLoS Biol 7(6): e1000131. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1000131 Academic Editor: Callum Roberts, University of York, United Kingdom Received November 4, 2008; Accepted May 7, 2009; Published June 23, 2009 Copyright: ß 2009 Mora et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: Funding to CM, RAM, and BW was provided by the Sloan Foundation through the Future of Marine Animal Populations Project. KJG holds a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award. Funding to RUS was provided by the Pew Fellowship for Marine Conservation. Funding to DZ, RUS, and RW was provided by the Pew Charitable Trust, Philadelphia through the Sea Around Us Project. Funding to MC was provided by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement #GA-2008-219265 for the implementation of ECOFUN Project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Abbreviations: EEZ, exclusive economic zone; Lindex, loss of energy in the ecosystem; Psust, probability of sustainability of reported catches. * E-mail: [email protected]. {Deceased. Introduction Given the different ecological and socioeconomic consequences of a global fisheries crisis, a number of international efforts have Fisheries play an important role in the global provision of food, sought to improve management in the hope of moving towards directly accounting for at least 15% of the animal protein sustainable marine fisheries (sensu Pauly et al. [13]). Some of these consumed by humans and indirectly supporting food production initiatives, which incorporated to varying degrees the improve- by aquaculture and livestock industries [1,2]. Demand for fish is ment of marine fisheries management, include the United Nations expected to grow given escalating animal protein demands in Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries from the Food and developing countries and the rapidly increasing human population Agriculture Organization [14], the Convention on Biological [1–4]. However, reported global marine fisheries landings have Diversity (http://www.cbd.int/), and the Millennium Ecosystem declined by about 0.7 million tonnes per year since the late 1980s Assessment (http://www.millenniumassessment.org). Although [5], with at least 28% of the world’s fish stocks overexploited or these initiatives have received broad acceptance, the extent to depleted, and 52% fully exploited by 2008 [1]. Severe reductions which corrective measures are implemented and effective remains in abundance can change population genetic structure [6], harm poorly known [15–17]. Using a survey approach, validated with the recovery potential of stocks [7], trigger broader ecosystem empirical data and enquiries to fisheries experts, we quantified the changes (e.g., [8–10]), threaten livelihoods [1], and endanger food status of fisheries management in each nation worldwide that has security [11] and efforts towards the reduction of hunger [11,12]. an exclusive economic zone (EEZ). We also related our PLoS Biology | www.plosbiology.org 1 June 2009 | Volume 7 | Issue 6 | e1000131 The World’s Management of Fisheries Author Summary p,0.00001, n = 28 countries; Figure 1C]). Justification, extended results, and discussion on the reliability and validity of the experts’ Global fisheries are in crisis: marine fisheries provide 15% data are presented in Materials and Methods. We also used a of the human food supply, yet 80% of the world’s fish Monte Carlo simulation approach to include score uncertainty stocks are either fully exploited, overexploited or have estimates in the results. We provide the main results and general collapsed. Several international initiatives have sought to conclusions in the text; full results are presented in Figures S1, S2, improve the management of marine fisheries, hoping to S3, S4, S5 and http://as01.ucis.dal.ca/ramweb/surveys/fishery_ reduce the deleterious ecological and socioeconomic assessment/. consequence of the crisis. Unfortunately, the extent to which countries are improving their management and whether such intervention ensures the sustainability of the Scientific Robustness fisheries remain unknown. Here, we surveyed 1,188 Critical to the success of fisheries management is the scientific fisheries experts from every coastal country in the world basis on which management recommendations are made [18,19]. for information about the effectiveness with which Preventing the collapse of fisheries and ecosystem-wide impacts fisheries are being managed, and related those results to requires scientific advice in which uncertainty is minimized by an index of the probable sustainability of reported catches. using skilled personnel, models that include, not only the dynamics We show that the management of fisheries worldwide is of fished stocks, but also their embedded ecosystems, and high- lagging far behind international guidelines recommended quality and up-to-date data (such that reliable recommendations to minimize the effects of overexploitation. Only a handful can be adapted as conditions and stocks fluctuate). Alternatively, of countries have a robust scientific basis for management the effects of uncertainty can be minimized by applying recommendations, and transparent and participatory processes to convert those recommendations into policy precautionary approaches in the face of limited knowledge while also ensuring compliance with regulations. Our [18,20]. Of the world’s 209 EEZs analyzed, 87% have scientific study also shows that the conversion of scientific advice personnel who are qualified (e.g., with Ph.D.- or Masters-level into policy, through a participatory and transparent education, or have participated in training courses or relevant process, is at the core of achieving fisheries sustainability, conferences) to perform fisheries assessments and provide science- regardless of other attributes of the fisheries. These results based management advice (Figure S1A), approximately 7% use illustrate the benefits of participatory, transparent, and holistic models as the basis of management recommendations (i.e., science-based management while highlighting the great including a broad set of biological and environmental data on vulnerability of the world’s fisheries services. The data for fisheries to enable ecosystem-wide understanding of fisheries each country can be viewed at