![]() ![]() Until recently, small-scale fisheries have not been at the centre of policies or dialogue on fisheries sustainability, but that is changing. In less developed States, where social support resources and alternative employment opportunities are less available, the consequences of lost fishing livelihoods are even harsher small-scale fisheries often provide employment to multiple generations, and both men and women have important roles, so the entire base of communities can be lost. The economic and social consequences of the cod moratorium in eastern Canada, for example, have been significant and have lasted far longer than the moratorium itself. The dependence of such communities on fishing can be found not only in less developed States. In many fisheries, however, particularly small-scale fisheries, there is little scope for coastal communities to accommodate the loss of livelihoods associated with fishing. Further capital investment, which could contribute to the overcapacity of fishing fleets, might also be discouraged. If the only impacts of fishing less to achieve greater ecological sustainability were financial then economic policies and market measures might mitigate some negative effects on revenues. Aside from rare and exceptional circumstances usually associated with histories of severe overfishing, merely reducing fishing would have unsustainable social and economic outcomes even if the targeted fish stocks increased. Sustainability must be found for all the outcomes-ecological, economic and social. Fisheries are conducted in order to provide economic returns from market sales, livelihoods to those participating in the activity, and above all, food for people. Neither of those conditions, however, is true. It might be appropriate to consider the approach of simply fishing less if the only standard of sustainability were the status of the exploited stocks and the ecosystems in which they occur. Some proposals for ocean protection targets promote such strategies, including the call for classifying 30 per cent of the ocean as marine protected areas where no extractive resource uses would be permitted. Reducing fishing pressure across the board would allow the remaining overfished stocks to recover and sustainable fisheries to have greater resilience to pressures such as climate change, ocean pollution and other factors. One option would be to simply exploit everything less. Vigilance is also needed to keep currently sustainable fisheries from expanding to unsustainable levels. With the proportion of exploited stocks classed as overÂfished remaining around 30 per cent since the 1990s, progress still needs to be made on making all fisheries sustainable. The total take of capture fisheries globally has been stable for three decades, and the proportion of assessed fish stocks considered to be overfished has increased only marginally over the same period. ![]() Two figures from the report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016 (SOFIA), 1 suggest that although unsustainable fisheries still exist, they are not the rule. Much has been written from many perspectives about whether fisheries are currently sustainable and, to the extent that they are not, what should be done to achieve sustainability. The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016: Contributing to Food Security and Nutrition for All (FAO-SOFIA 2016), p. ![]() Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Global trend in yield from capture fisheries and aquaculture production globally since 1950. ![]()
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