Measuring the effectiveness of fisheries management to sustainably produce food

Abstract The objectives of fisheries management are diverse and include production of food, employment, and profit while protecting marine species and the environment. Most evaluations of fisheries outcomes focus on the status of fish stocks, rather than on fisheries’ performance in producing benefits such as food. We develop an index based on calculating the long-term food production for individual stocks as a function of fishing pressure, and comparing that to the estimated maximum sustainable yield. We calculate this index for 19 data-rich countries and 5 regional fisheries management organizations and estimate what fraction of the potential wild-caught fishery yield would be obtained under current management. Across all countries, 77% of the combined maximum sustainable yield is predicted to be caught in the long term. Of the remaining quantity foregone, 86% of foregone food production was attributed to low fishing pressure compared to only 14% foregone resulting from overfishing. The international fisheries had 4% of yield lost to overfishing, and 12% lost due to low fishing pressure. This means that most of the potential for increasing fisheries yield from assessed stocks would come from increased fishing pressure on stocks that are currently underexploited, but this may not be consistent with other national objectives.