Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 28

PART 1 WORLD REVIEW
on valuable species in the fishing industr y) or
both, and whether such growth is sustainable in
the long term.
Catch statistics by FAO major fishing area for the
last two available years, as well as the 2005 –2014
average, are presented in Table 4. Clear tendencies
can be noted if fishing areas are roughly
classified in three main categories (Figure 4):
„ „ temperate areas (areas 21, 27, 37, 41, 61, 67
and 81);
„ „ tropical areas (areas 31, 51, 57 and 71);
„ „ upwelling areas (areas 34, 47, 77 and 87).
Within the shrimp group, the performance of
Argentine red shrimp (Pleoticus muelleri)
remained outstanding in 2016. In The State of
World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012 (FAO, 2012d,
pp. 21–22), large fluctuations in abundance of this
species were noted because, after a major drop in
2005, its catches recovered and exceeded the
previous peak, in part as a result of management
measures implemented by national authorities.
After a minor decrease in 2012, catches of
Pleoticus muelleri have been growing at a 22
percent average annual rate and in 2016 doubled
those of 2011.
After two peaks in 1988 and 1997 at about 45
million tonnes, catches in temperate areas
decreased to 37 million tonnes in 2009 but then
recovered to 40.5 million tonnes and 38.9 million
tonnes in 2015 and 2016, respectively. However,
this rebound can be attributed to China’s catches of
marine fishes nei in area 61, the Northwest Pacific,
of which a good portion, as explained above, are
distant-water catches that include fish caught in
other areas.
Catches of much lower-priced small pelagics –
which in many developing countries are important
for food security but in others are largely
processed into fishmeal and fish oil – have been
rather stable, with the total annual catches of the
13 small pelagic fishes listed in Table 3 averaging
about 15 million tonnes. Following a taxonomic
split that has become widely adopted in the
scientific literature, catches in Atlantic areas
previously classified as Pacific chub mackerel
(Scomber japonicus) are now classified as Atlantic
chub mackerel (Scomber colias).
All other temperate areas have shown decreasing
trends for several years, with the sole exception of
area 67, the Northeast Pacific, where catches in
2016 were higher than the average for 2005–2014
thanks to good catches of gadiform species
(Alaska pollock, Pacific cod [Gadus macrocephalus]
and north Pacific hake [Merluccius productus]).
Recent drops in catches in areas 41 and 81, the
Southwest Atlantic and the Southwest Pacific,
were the result of greatly reduced catches by
distant-water fishing nations targeting
cephalopods in the Southwest Atlantic and
various species in the Southwest Pacific. In area
27, the Northeast Atlantic, catches by European
Union countries increased in 2015 by 4.4 percent
but decreased in 2016 by 6.7 percent, even though
the European Union has been implementing the
landing obligation to eliminate discards since
Januar y 2015, which was expected to increase
recorded catches. However, according to a recent
statement by the European Commission ( Vella,
2017), the economic performance of the European
Union f leet has improved considerably and its
profits are increasing.
Catches of tuna and tuna-like species levelled
off at around 7.5 million tonnes after a
maximum ever in 2014. A few species – skipjack,
yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) and bigeye
(Thunnus obesus) tunas and seerfishes
(Scomberomorus spp.) nei – make up about 75
percent of the catches of this group.
Throughout the past 20 years, FAO has made
efforts to improve the taxonomic breakdown
of the “Sharks, rays, chimaeras” group.
Currently, the FAO database includes 180
species items in this group, but catches of too
many Elasmobranchii are still not reported at
the species level, mostly because some major
Asian fishing countries only report non-
identified catches of sharks and rays or do not
report any statistics at all for this group. Total
catches of Elasmobranchii have been relatively
steady since 2005, ranging between 0.7 and
0.8 million tonnes.
Most notable in Figure 4 is the continuously rising
trend in catches in tropical areas. In contrast with
the situation in temperate waters, mainly fished
by developed countries, in fishing areas that
mostly lie in tropical regions catches of large »
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