New approaches to global stock status assessment and fishery production potential of the seas
Stock status is a key parameter for evaluating the sustainability of fishery resources and developing corresponding management plans. While managers and policy-makers need information on individual fish stocks to evaluate their status so that effective management strategies can be developed, determining the status and potential production of wild-capture fish stocks still remains a major challenge. The majority of stocks are not assessed, often as a result of insufficient data and a lack of resources needed to execute formal stock assessments. The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department has just released a study, Developing new approaches to global stock status assessment and fishery production potential of the seas, as an important step in investigating the performance of methods that can be used to estimate stock status. The document focuses on two approaches to estimating fisheries status: one based on single-stock status, and the other based on ecosystem production. The results are not intended to provide direct advice to motivate management measures on specific fisheries, but to give an indication of the health of fish stocks and their production potential.