Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 56

PART 1 WORLD REVIEW
FIGURE 14
GLOBAL TRENDS IN THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S MARINE FISH STOCKS, 1974–2015
100
Overfished
80
Maximally sustainably fished
60
40
Underfished
20
0
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
YEAR
Biologically sustainable
Biologically unsustainable
percentage of stocks fished at biologically
unsustainable levels increased from 10 percent in
1974 to 33.1 percent in 2015, with the largest
increases in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Northwest Pacific (Area 61), Western Central
Pacific (Area 71) and Southwest Pacific (Area
81) had the lowest proportion (13 to 17 percent)
of fish stocks at biologically unsustainable
levels. Other areas varied between 21 and 43
percent in 2015.
In 2015, maximally sustainably fished stocks
accounted for 59.9 percent and underfished
stocks for 7.0 percent of the total assessed
stocks (separated by the white line in Figure 14).
The underfished stocks decreased
continuously from 1974 to 2015, whereas the
maximally sustainably fished stocks decreased
from 1974 to 1989, and then increased to 59.9
percent in 2015.
The temporal pattern of landings differs from
area to area depending on the productivit y of
fisher y ecosystems, fishing intensit y,
management and fish stock status. In general,
after excluding Arctic and Antarctic areas, which
have minor landings, three groups of patterns
can be obser ved (Figure 16):
„ „ areas with a continuously increasing trend in
catches since 1950;
„ „ areas with catches f luctuating around a
globally stable value since 1990, associated
with the dominance of pelagic, short-lived
species;
„ „ areas with an overall declining trend following
historical peaks.
In 2015, among the 16 major statistical areas,
the Mediterranean and Black Sea (Area 37) had
the highest percentage (62.2 percent) of
unsustainable stocks, closely followed by the
Southeast Pacific 61.5 percent (Area 87) and
Southwest Atlantic 58.8 percent (Area 41)
(Figure 15). In contrast, the Eastern Central Pacific
(Area 77), Northeast Pacific (Area 67),
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