title: Status and solutions for the world's unassessed fisheries.
abstract: Recent reports suggest that many well-assessed fisheries in developed countries are moving toward sustainability. We examined whether the same conclusion holds for fisheries lacking formal assessment, which comprise >80% of global catch. We developed a method using species' life-history, catch, and fishery development data to estimate the status of thousands of unassessed fisheries worldwide. We found that small unassessed fisheries are in substantially worse condition than assessed fisheries, but that large unassessed fisheries may be performing nearly as well as their assessed counterparts. Both small and large stocks, however, continue to decline; 64% of unassessed stocks could provide increased sustainable harvest if rebuilt. Our results suggest that global fishery recovery would simultaneously create increases in abundance (56%) and fishery yields (8 to 40%).
authors.affiliation: Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA. costello@bren.ucsb.edu
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Costello
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ovando
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hilborn
authors.forename: Steven D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Gaines
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Deschenes
authors.forename: Sarah E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Lester
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005398:Fisheries / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017747:Seafood / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data