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Indicator Assessment

Status of marine fish stocks

Indicator Assessment
Prod-ID: IND-13-en
  Also known as: CSI 032
Published 29 Nov 2005 Last modified 11 May 2021
13 min read
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This page was archived on 03 Mar 2015 with reason: Other (New version data-and-maps/indicators/status-of-marine-fish-stocks-2/assessment was published)

Many commercial fish stocks in European waters remain non-assessed. Of the assessed commercial stocks in the NE Atlantic, 22 to 53 % are outside safe biological limits (SBL). Of the assessed stocks in the Baltic Sea, the West Ireland Sea and the Irish Sea, 22, 29 and 53 %, respectively, are outside SBL. In the Mediterranean, the percentage of stocks outside SBL range from 10 to 20 %.

Status of commercial fish stocks in European Seas, 2003-2004

Note: Title in Maps and Graph: Commercial fish stocks outside safe biological limits, 2004

Data source:

GFCM, ICCAT, ICES

State of commercial fish stocks in N E Atlantic and Baltic Sea in 2003-2004

Note: Colour coding: Blue= Within safe biological limits Red= Outside safe biological limits Grey= No assessment a

Data source:

ICES

State of commercial fish stocks in Mediterranean Sea up to 2004

Note: Coverage 1

Data source:

GFCM, ICCAT

Changes in state of commercial stocks in the North East Atlantic and Baltic Sea

Note: N/A

Data source:

ICES

Changes in state of commercial stocks in the Mediterranean

Note: N/A

Data source:

GFCM, ICCAT

Many commercial fish stocks in European waters remain non-assessed. In the NE Atlantic, the percentage of non-assessed stocks of economic importance range from a minimum of 20 % (North Sea) to a maximum of 71 % (West Ireland) which is an increase from 13 % and 59 % respectively in the previous assessment in 2002. The Baltic Sea also shows a high percentage of non-assessed stocks at 67 % compared with the previous 56 %. In the Mediterranean region, the percentage is much higher with an average of 80 %, and a range from 65 % (Aegean Sea) to 83 % in the Adriatic (the previous highest value was 90 % in the South Alboran Sea).

Of the assessed commercial stocks in the NE Atlantic, 22 to 53 % are outside safe biological limits (SBL).  This is an improvement compared with the last record of 33-60 %. Of the assessed stocks in the Baltic and West Ireland Seas, 22 and 29 %, respectively, are over-fished (33 % in the past) while 53 % of stocks in the Irish Sea remain outside SBL (past record held by West of Scotland at 60 %). In the Mediterranean the percentage of stocks outside SBL range from 10 to 20 %, with the Aegean and the Cretan Sea being in the worst condition.
Examination of 'safe' stocks in the NE Atlantic shows a slight decline ranging between 0 and 33%; these values correspond to the West Ireland and North Sea, respectively. The last assessment of 2002 showed a range of 5 to 33 % for the Celtic Sea/Western Channel and the Arctic, respectively. In the Mediterranean, the range extends from 0% (Cretan Sea) to 11% (Sardinia) compared with a minimum of 0% (S. Alboran and Cretan Seas) and a maximum of 15 % (Aegean Sea) in 2002.

When examining the European stocks more closely, the following conclusions can be drawn:

  • The recovery of herring stocks appears to continue.
  • Almost all round fish stocks have declined and are currently not sustainable.
  • Pelagic and industrial species remain in better condition but still need to be subject to reduced fishing rates.
  • In the Mediterranean region, only two demersal and two small pelagic stocks are monitored by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), with a limited spatial coverage. Demersal stocks remain outside safe biological limits. Many assessments that cover wider areas are based on preliminary results. Small pelagic stocks in the same area exhibit large-scale fluctuations but are not fully exploited anywhere, except for anchovy and pilchard in the Southern Alboran and Cretan Seas.
  • According to the latest assessment by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) a strong recruitment of swordfish over recent years has rendered the exploitation of the stock sustainable. Concern still remains about the over-exploitation of bluefin tuna.  Uncertainties of stock assessment and lack of documented reporting (including EU Member States) still hinder management of these highly migratory species. Bluefin tuna catches continue to exceed the sustainable rate and, despite ICCAT recommendations for both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, no measures (despite reductions in Total Allowable Catches) have been enforced.

Listed below are the main recommendations and actions taken by EU institutions and ICES to prevent collapse of different stocks: 

  • ICES recommends to ban cod fishing in the North Sea, Irish Sea and west of Scotland, and to develop recovery plans to rebuild the stocks,
  • EU prohibited all fisheries in an area west of Scotland as of 1 January 2004, and  established a cod protection area in the North Sea where vessels targeting haddock are not allowed to fish,
  • European Commission proposed (March 2004) to adjust the area concerned accordingly and to change the percentages of haddock that can be caught by vessels not holding a special licence,
  • European Commission tabled two proposals on long-term measures to help the recovery of sole stocks in the western Channel and Bay of Biscay, southern hake  in the Cantabrian Sea and western Iberian Peninsula as well as plan for northern hake,
  • ICES advises that fishing for deep-sea fish species should be permitted only when there are accompanying programmes to collect appropriate data. The expansion of such fisheries should be very slow until reliable assessments indicate that increased harvests are sustainable.

Supporting information

Indicator definition

The indicator tracks the ratio of the number of over-fished stocks to the total number of commercial stocks per fishing area in European seas.
Fish species rarely reproduce randomly with con-species throughout their geographical range, but form a series of stocks that are reproductively isolated in space and time. Cod for instance form a stock in the North Sea and another one in the Iceland area. These are isolated from each other and one can potentially be fished out while the other is thriving. European eel is an example of an extreme situation where there is only one stock as all mature eel migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn in random mixture with each other. 

It should be noted that in the Northeast Atlantic area stocks are generally defined based on biological criteria and knowledge of population migration, mixing and spawning areas, while in the Mediterranean due to lack of biological knowledge, stocks are defined largely by area and not in general on the basis of well established biological knowledge on population units.

 

Commercial stocks are the stocks of economic importance on which the fishing effort is focused upon in each area aiming at a profit, i.e. a subset of exploited stocks. It is a broader term encompassing target species, by-catches and industrial species that are of economic importance to the market.
Overfished stocks are stocks outside safe biological limits
Safe stocks are stocks inside safe biological limits
Non-assessed stocks are stocks for which no assessment has been carried out.

The indicator also contains information on:
1. Numbers of commercial, assessed and over-fished stocks by sea area;
2. The state of commercial stocks (over-fished stocks per area), safe stocks, stocks for which an assessment has not been carried out.
3. Fish catch in specific seas from assessed and unassessed stocks.
4. Status of stocks by species and seas.

Units

Landings and spawning stock biomass are given in thousand tonnes, recruitment in million tonnes; fishing mortality is expressed as the proportion of a stock that is removed by fishing activities in a year.


 

Policy context and targets

Context description

The sustainable exploitation of fish stocks is regulated through the EU Common Fishery Policy (OJ C 158 27.06.1980). Regulatory arrangements, identifying harvesting levels  based on the CFP, the precautionary principle and multi-annual fisheries plans, were set through the Cardiff European Council (COM (2000) 803). Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas for the stocks in the NE Atlantic and the Baltic Sea are set annually by the Fisheries Council. In the Mediterranean Sea, where no TACs have been set except for the highly migratory tunas and swordfish, fisheries management is achieved by means of closed areas and seasons to keep fishing effort under control and make exploitation patterns more rational. The General Fisheries Council for the Mediterranean (GFCM) attempts to harmonise the process.

 

The latest Action Plan on Fisheries management as part of the CFP reform was presented to the Fisheries Council in October 2002, and Council Regulation (EC) No 2371/2002 of 20 December 2002 on the conservation and sustainable exploitation of fisheries resources under the Common Fisheries Policy is now in force. A new set of regulations has since been adopted on specific issues.

Targets

Sustainable exploitation of fish stocks is a target of the EU common fishery policy (CFP).

Total Allowable Catches (TACs) and quotas for the individual stocks in the NE Atlantic and the Baltic Sea are set annually by the Fisheries Council. In the Mediterranean Sea, where no TACs have yet been set (except for the highly migratory tunas and swordfish), fisheries management is achieved by means of closed areas and seasons that are designed to keep fishing effort under control and make exploitation patterns more rational.

Related policy documents

 

Methodology

Methodology for indicator calculation

Number of commercial stocks = 12
Number of assessed stocks = overfished +safe = 1+11= 12
Stock are regarded as within safe biological limits if the stocks size with a high probability is high enough to secure average future recruitment (in technical terms if SSB is above Bpa as defined by ICES). The numbers of overfished and safe stocks have been extracted from the relevant sources. Their ratio has been calculated and presented in pie charts per fishing area.

The above data are from ICES Advice 2006 (section 1.5.1.1 supplemented by Icelandic, Faroese and Barents Sea stocks).  The definition used here is the sum of the stocks listed as overfished and within safe biological limits. Shell fish are not included.

Fish species rarely reproduce randomly with con-species throughout their geographical range, but form a series of stocks that are reproductively isolated in space and time. Cod for instance form a stock in the North Sea and another one in the Iceland area. These are isolated from each other and one can potentially be fished out while the other is thriving. European eel is an example of an extreme situation where there is only one stock as all mature eel migrate to the Sargasso Sea to spawn in random mixture with each other. 


 

Methodology for gap filling

In the case of the Mediterranean since yearly assessment focuses only on four species with limited geographical coverage ( or 6 out of the new 27 units ) it was decided to use the old geographical units and include assessments of species that were presented (ad hoc) in the 2001 assessment.

Methodology references

  • ICES Advice Further details on the way ICES formulates advice in precautionary terms.
  • Fisheries in the Mediterranean Papaconstantinou, C., and Farrugio, H., 2000, 'Fisheries in the Mediterranean', Mediterranean Marine Science, 1/15-18.
 

Uncertainties

Methodology uncertainty

All international fisheries organisations use almost the same principles to determine the state of the stocks, and ICES has fine-tuned the methodology used. However decisions are based on safety margins usually set at 30 % above safe limits which in turn bears a degree of uncertainty since estimates of fishing mortality (F) and Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) are themselves uncertain; the decision on the reference points is then a task for managers, not scientists.

Species and spatial coverage for the Mediterranean is limited. No reference points have been defined for the Mediterranean stocks. The detailed stock assessments for the NE Atlantic and Baltic are obtained through ICES. In the Mediterranean, stock assessments are carried out by the General Fisheries Council for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and, in the absence of complete or independent information on fishing intensity or fishing mortality, are based mainly on landings. Stock assessment is thus based mainly on analysis of landing trends, biomass surveys, and analysis of commercial catch per unit effort (CPUE) data. On the Mediterranean supplementary work is being carried out by DG Fisheries, and a number of internationally funded bottom trawl surveys (MEDITS, SAMED).

Shellfish and cephalopodes are not included in this assessment. It cannot be assumed that fish indicators represent the status of these two groups in relation to sustainable fishing, because they are mainly prey for fish species and will therefore often show the opposite stock development of the fish.

Data sets uncertainty

In the Mediterranean, fisheries management is considered to be at an early stage compared with the NE Atlantic. Catch and effort statistics are not considered to be fully reliable and much effort is directed at estimation of corrective factors (Papaconstantinou & Farrugio, 2000).
Unreported landings are still considered to be a major problem.

Rationale uncertainty

Slightly different approaches are being used in the Mediterranean and the NE Atlantic to determine whether a stock is outside safe biological limits.

Data sources

Other info

DPSIR: State
Typology: Descriptive indicator (Type A - What is happening to the environment and to humans?)
Indicator codes
  • CSI 032
Frequency of updates
Updates are scheduled once per year
EEA Contact Info

Permalinks

Temporal coverage

Dates

Tags

Filed under:
Filed under: fisheries, csi
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