Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 30

PART 1 WORLD REVIEW
FIGURE 4
TRENDS IN THREE MAIN CATEGORIES OF FISHING AREAS
50
40
30
20
10
0
1970
1972
1974
1976
Temperate areas
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
Tropical areas
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
Upwelling areas
» (mostly tuna) and small pelagic species continue
On the contrar y, the sustained growth in area 71,
the Western Central Pacific, is mostly due to tuna
and tuna-like species, with catches of skipjack
alone reg ularly over 1.6 million tonnes since
2012. In this area small pelagics have shown a
decreasing trend in recent years. Unfortunately,
unspecified catches lumped together under
”marine fishes nei” still represent over one-
fourth of the catches in both this area and area
57, the Eastern Indian Ocean.
to increase. Catches in area 31, the Western
Central Atlantic, exceeded 1.5 million tonnes in
2016, a level that had not been reached since
2004. However, over one-third of total capture
production in area 31 consists of catches by the
United States of America of Gulf menhaden
(Brevoortia patronus), a clupeoid species that is
processed into fishmeal and fish oil.
Capture production in both the Western and
Eastern Indian Ocean (areas 51 and 57) reached a
maximum in 2016. Catches in these areas have
been increasing almost steadily since the 1980s,
with restrained growth only during the early and
mid-2000s. In the past decade, small pelagics,
coastal fishes and shrimps have been the major
contributors to the increased production in the
Indian Ocean, while catches of the tuna group
have been steady at about 1.6 million to 1.8
million tonnes since 2012.
Catches in upwelling areas are characterized by
high annual variabilit y. Their combined trend
trajector y (Figure 4) is highly inf luenced by catches
in area 87, the Southeast Pacific, where El Niño
oceanographic conditions strongly inf luence the
abundance of anchoveta.
Distant-water fishing nations have historically
fished in the two upwelling areas along the
west coast of Africa (areas 34 and 47, the
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