Fish stocks/overfishing | TableDebates

Fishing in africa. Credit: Aristotlè Guweh Jr via Pexels

Journal articles

Small Pelagics in West Africa face the multiple challenges of food security, wealth creation and regional governance

This study estimates that West Africa catches 1.3 million tonnes of small pelagic fish but this is insufficient to feed a growing population with protein deficiencies. Authors explore the challenges in sustainable management of these crucial stocks, argue that current public policies are inefficient and identify recommendations for better governance.

Image: Front cover of Feedback’s report titled “Blue Empire” showing aquaculture farms in a mountainous lake

Blue empire: Norwegian salmon industry impacts in West Africa

Feedback, a UK and Netherlands based organisation campaigning for sustainable and ethical food, has published a report linking the Norwegian salmon farming industry to poor nutrition and livelihood outcomes in West Africa. Norway has become the world’s largest salmon farming country with a handful of companies dominating the market, including MOWI which had nearly €5 billion in turnover in 2022.

The cover of Kings of Their Own Ocean by Karen Pinchin and water colour of some bluefin tuna.

Kings of Their Own Ocean

Investigative journalist Karen Pinchin uses the remarkable tale of an intrepid bluefin tuna as a lens to investigate the history of the industry, ocean science, conservation battles and environmental justice concerns. The book dwells on the battle between Al Anderson, an enigmatic conservationist, and the bluefin tuna industry as they face the threats of financial competition, climate change and overfishing.

The cover of “Fishing Europe’s Troubled Waters: Fifty Years of Fisheries Policy”

Fishing Europe's Troubled Waters: Fifty Years of Fisheries Policy

This book, coming at the end of the author’s celebrated career in social science, reflects on 50 turbulent years of fisheries management and policy in Europe, across a period in which the globalisation of trade, increasing regulation and declining fish stocks have had a radical impact on North Atlantic fisheries. The author considers the origins of the Common Fisheries Policy and the roots of its failure to deliver sustainable fisheries, the flaws of a centralised system and the consequences of Brexit for the UK fishing industry.

Grindadráp: What place does whaling have in a sustainable food future?

What place does whaling have in a sustainable food future?

Few food practices draw more intense debate than whaling. In the case of grindadráp, the traditional Faroese form of whaling, this debate plays out almost every summer in bloody images in tabloid newspapers around the world and calls for the tourist industry to boycott the islands. But beyond the headlines, this is a complex, challenging issue that raises questions about what a truly local, sustainable food future could look like. In this TABLE blog, Tamsin Blaxter, researcher and writer at TABLE, explores some of the issues around the grind, both from the perspective of animal rights and conservation, and food traditions and local identity.

Assessing Seafood Supply Chains

Assessing risk of illegally caught seafood in supply chains

This report from Friends of Ocean Action, FishWise, Global Fishing Watch and the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions discusses how seafood providers can use data to avoid illegal, unregulated or unreported fishing. It describes the first phase of the development of a “Supply Chain Risk Tool” that gathers data on fishing fleets and vessels from multiple sources and identifies potential risks.

Infinity Fish: Economics and the Future of Fish and Fisheries

Infinity Fish: Economics and the Future of Fish and Fisheries

This book explores the economic aspects of conserving marine resources such as fisheries. It includes case studies as well as examples of applying cost-benefit analyses.

Image: Quangpraha, Outdoor fish fishing, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

Journal articles

Paradigm shifts in aquatic food production

This paper presents two qualitative narratives for possible futures of seafood production: a transition from fisheries towards aquaculture, and the co-existence of both fisheries and aquaculture. Within each narrative, the authors examine what could happen in the presence or absence of regulation.

WUR

News and resources

Simon Bush: Boycotting seafood will not save the seas

Prof Simon Bush, Chair of the Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University, has written an opinion piece critically reflecting on the Netflix documentary Seaspiracy and its argument that we should stop eating fish to protect ocean ecosystems. Bush queries some of the factual claims of the film, including statements about whether fish stocks will collapse by 2048, the fraction of fish that is illegally caught and the presence of pollutants in fish. He argues that seafood is an essential source of nutrition for billions of people, including many of the poorest people.