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This paper is a product of an National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) working group.

NCEAS supports cross-disciplinary research that uses existing data to address major fundamental issues in ecology and allied fields, and their application to management and policy.



Authors


Boris Worm
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 902 346 2112
Office: +1 902 494 2478

Ray Hilborn
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
[email protected]
Field Office (July 29-30): +1 907 842 5380
Radiophone (other times): +1 907 842 2534


Julia Baum
University of California, San Diego / Scripps Institution of Oceanography
[email protected]
Trevor Branch
University of Washington, WA
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 206 450 2830
Office: +1 206 221 5457
Jeremy Collie
University of Rhode Island, RI
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 401 782 3437
Office: +1 401 874 6859
Christopher Costello
University of California, Santa
Barbara, CA
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 805 450 9919
Office: +1 805 893 5802
Michael Fogarty
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 774 302 0781
Office: +1 508 495 2386
Elizabeth Fulton
CSIRO Wealth from Oceans
Flagship, Hobart, Australia
[email protected]
Mobile: +61 4 28564183
Office: +61 3 62325018
Jeffrey Hutchings
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS,
Canada
[email protected]
Office: +1 902 494 2687
Simon Jennings
Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), UK
[email protected]
Olaf Jensen
University of Washington
[email protected]
Heike Lotze
Dalhousie University, Halifax,
NS, Canada
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 902 346 2112
Office: +1 902 494 3406
Pamela Mace
New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries,
Wellington, New Zealand
[email protected]
Mobile: +64 27 240 8262
Office: +64 4 819 4266
Tim McClanahan
Wildlife Conservation Society,
Mombasa, Kenya
[email protected]
Mobile: +254 734 774 225
Office: +254 725 546 822
Cóilín Minto
Dalhousie University
[email protected]
Stephen Palumbi
Stanford University, CA
[email protected]
Office: +1 831 655 6214
Ana Parma
Centro Nacional Patagónico,
Puerto Madryn, Argentina
[email protected]
Office: +54 2965 451024 (Int. 229)
Daniel Ricard
Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS,
Canada
[email protected]
Office: +1 902 494 3910
Andrew Rosenberg
University of New Hampshire,
NH
[email protected]
Mobile: +1 603 767 9501
Office: +1 603 862 2020
Reg Watson
University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC, Canada
[email protected]
Mobile: +61 424 019503
Dirk Zeller
University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, BC, Canada
[email protected]
Office: +1 604 822 1950
   


Outside Commenters

Dr. John Beddington
Chief Scientific Adviser to HM Government
Government Office for Science, United Kingdom
+44 (0) 20 3300 8553
[email protected]
"This is an extremely important paper which shows not only the serious problems that fisheries are facing, but affords sensible insights into the way these problems need to be addressed, not just by scientific input, but by political will. The importance of fisheries to the world economy is often underestimated, but in terms of world production of livestock in agriculture, fisheries is a very substantial proportion of that production. It is therefore imperative, in a world with an increasing population, threatened by potential shortages of food, water and energy, and increasingly by climate change, that we get the management of fisheries right. This paper is an important contribution to that task."
Dr. Steve Murawksi
Director of Scientific Programs and Chief Science Advisor
National Marine Fisheries Service
(301) 713-2339 office
(301) 404-7619 mobile
[email protected]
"This study clearly demonstrates that in both developing and developed parts of the world, if fishery exploitation rates are reduced sufficiently, species and their ecosystems have the capacity to recover. The study drew together two scientific approaches, one focused on conservation of marine communities and the other focused on the science of fishery population dynamics. The result is a product that has profound importance in the design of management systems to achieve diverse goals for conserving and using marine ecosystems."
Dr. Daniel Pauly
Professor, UBC Fisheries Centre and Zoology Department
Principal Investigator, Sea Around Us Project
(604) 822 1201
[email protected]
"This work shows very convincingly that researchers, as a rule, understand marine ecosystems and fisheries well enough to design effective remedies to overfishing. What is mostly lacking, and sorely needed nowadays, is the political support to apply these remedies to the many fisheries that still operate as if there were no tomorrow."
Dr. Keith Sainsbury
CSIRO Wealth from Oceans Flagship in Hobart, Australia
Office: +61 417308480
Mobile: +61 362291767
[email protected]
"At last we have a comprehensive scientific examination of the controversy that has been reverberating for the last decade about the state of fisheries in the world. That is looking backwards. And looking forward it both opens up new ecosystem-oriented methods for scientific assessment of fisheries and provides guidance and encouragement for fishing industries and regulators."

Rebuilding Global Fisheries

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MMSY is "Multi-species maximum sustainable yield" - it is the level at which an ecosystem can maximally sustain fisheries yield across a number of species, not just one. Fishing below MMSY provides ecosystems with a chance to recover. PLEASE NOTE: Alaska (the East Bering Sea in particular) has never been fished above MMSY.


Fish Photos
Brown tiger prawn (Penaeus escutentus). Image enhanced and made available through a project jointly funded by the Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO. Credit to CSIRO.
Fish market, Rome. Credit to John Everett, Oceansart.us/Marine Photobank, http://www.OceansArt.us.
Mackerel - Scomber scombrus. Credit to Emily Howgate.
Red snapper. Credit to Jean-François Chénier - Flickr Creative Commons license.
Tiger flathead (Platycephalus richardsoni). Image enhanced and made available through a project jointly funded by the Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO. Credit to CSIRO.
Tiger flathead (Platycephalus richardsoni). Image enhanced and made available through a project jointly funded by the Australian Fisheries Research and Development Corporation and CSIRO. Credit to CSIRO.
Small haddock, whiting and cod - often bycatch in the south North Sea. Credit to Sascha Regmann/Project Blue Sea/MarinePhotobank.
Fishing and Fishermen - Africa
Woman selling fish, Kenya. Credit to Josh Cinner.
Fishermen and their catch, Kenya. Credit to Josh Cinner.
Fishermen working nets in the waves, Kenya. Credit to Josh Cinner.
Fishermen going over catch, Kenya. Credit to Josh Cinner.
Silhouette of fisherman poling. Credit to Alles-Schlumpf - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommercial, Share Alike.
Local fishing boats, Kenya. Credit to Josh Cinner.
Fisherman with swordfish. Malindi - Kenya - January 2006. Credit to Cristian Ravalli - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommerical, No Derivative Works.
Fishing and Fishermen - Australia/Asia
Demersal sampling nets on the deck of an Australian fishing vessel. Credit to CSIRO.
Australian fishing vessel with nets hanging to dry. Credit to CSIRO.
CSIRO's Dr. Cathy Belman inspecting a trawl of orange roughy in the Australian Fishing Zone in the late 1980s. Australia's orange roughy fishery has since been highly constrained. Credit to Rudy Kloser, CSIRO.
New Zealand fishing boats and operations. Credit to New Zealand Seafood Industry Council.
New Zealand fishing boats and operations. Credit to New Zealand Seafood Industry Council.
New Zealand fishing boats and operations. Credit to New Zealand Seafood Industry Council.
New Zealand fishing boats and operations. Credit to New Zealand Seafood Industry Council.
New Zealand fishing boats and operations. Credit to New Zealand Seafood Industry Council.
String of fishing nets on the Vyapeen Islands, India. Credit to Anoop Negi - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommercial, Share Alike.
Fishing and Fishermen - Europe
Fishermen working the MSC-certified mackerel, herring and Dover sole fisheries dover sole fishery, Hastings UK. Credit to ©MSC/Marine Photobank.
Fishing nets laid out on the sea front at Leigh on Sea, UK. Credit to Gary Knight - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommercial, Share Alike.
Fishing boat and gear at dock, Iceland. Credit to Niklas Sjöblom - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommerical.
Fishing and Fishermen - North America
Guitarra (Rhinobatus productus) fishery in Sonora, Mexico. Credit to Marcia Moreno-Baez/Marine Photobank.
Cluster of fishing boats in Comox, British Columbia, Canada. Credit to Zoë Jackson - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommercial, Share Alike.
Fishing boat and ropes, Peggy's Cove. Credit to Bob Huberman - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommercial, No Derivative Works.
Pike Place Market (1907), 1501 Pike Place, Seattle, Washington Credit to Steve Minor - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, NonCommercial, No Derivative Works.
Fishing and Fishermen - South America
Fishing boats. Puerto de Caldera, Región de Atacama Chile. Credit to Javier Rubilar - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, Share Alike.
Fishing boats. Puerto de Caldera, Región de Atacama Chile. Credit to Javier Rubilar - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, Share Alike.
Fishing boats. Puerto de Caldera, Región de Atacama Chile. Credit to Javier Rubilar - Creative Commons Licence - Attribution, Share Alike.
Last Updated: 2022-07-01