Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
  • 2 Benioff Ocean Initiative, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
  • 3 School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA
  • 4 Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02114, USA
  • 5 Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
  • 6 Global Fishing Watch, Washington, DC 20036, USA
Sci Adv, 2018 Aug;4(8):eaau2161.
PMID: 30083613 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aau2161

Abstract

The patterns by which different nations share global fisheries influence outcomes for food security, trajectories of economic development, and competition between industrial and small-scale fishing. We report patterns of industrial fishing effort for vessels flagged to higher- and lower-income nations, in marine areas within and beyond national jurisdiction, using analyses of high-resolution fishing vessel activity data. These analyses reveal global dominance of industrial fishing by wealthy nations. Vessels flagged to higher-income nations, for example, are responsible for 97% of the trackable industrial fishing on the high seas and 78% of such effort within the national waters of lower-income countries. These publicly accessible vessel tracking data have important limitations. However, insights from these new analyses can begin to strategically inform important international- and national-level efforts underway now to ensure equitable and sustainable sharing of fisheries.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.