• Traditional food production and

distribution practices are unable

to feed the world’s 6.3+ billion
people
• Will resources in the sea be able
to provide enough food to
alleviate future problems of
malnutrition and starvation ?
Most valuable living marine resources:
• Demersal fish
• Pelagic fish
• Crustaceans
• Mollusks
• Marine mammals
Location of the world’s major commercial fisheries

coastal areas
upwelling
Commercial fishing:
• 500 species regularly caught
• Employs 200 million people worldwide
• In 2002 the world fishing fleet numbered
about four million vessels.
In 2005:
• 100 million tons taken
• $70 billion
Global Fish Catch
 World Commercial Catch of Marine
Fishes, Crustaceans, and Mollusks
(1995) cod
Species Group Millions of Metric Tons, Live Wt.
Herrings, sardines, anchovies 22.0
Jacks, mullets, sauries 11.2
Mollusks 11.0
Cods, hake, haddock 10.6
Redfish, basses, conger eels 7.0
Crustaceans 4.8
Tunas, bonitos, billfish 4.7
Mackerel, snooks, cutlass fishes 4.7
Flounders, halibut, soles 0.9
Miscellaneous marine fishes 17.7
Total (excluding marine mammals) 94.6
Food from the Sea
• Seaweeds

• Invertebrates (e.g., oysters, clams, crabs,

lobster, squid, etc.)

• Fish (herring, mackerel, haddock, cod,

tuna, mahi-mahi, etc.)
 Fisheries management
• Fisheries management
seeks to maintain a long-
term fishery by:
– Assessing ecosystem
health
– Determining fish stocks
– Analyzing fishing practices
– Enforcing catch limits
• Fisheries management
does not regulate the
number of fishing vessels
Fisheries Mismanagement
 Fisheries mismanagement
• Overfishing
• Commercial extinction
• Bycatch (27 million metric tons annually)
• Targeting smaller species on the low end of
the food chain
Bycatch by Gear Type for 2002/2003
Peru Anchovy Fishery
 Peru Anchovy Fishery

• Upwelling zone off Peru

• Fishery began 1950
• Greatest fish catches for any single species
• Fish exported for domestic animal feed
• Fishery collapsed due to El Niño and overfishing
Peru Anchovy Fishery

= El Niño
1957
1965
1972
1976
1982-83
 Collapse of New England
Fisheries

• Cod, haddock, ocean perch, herring,

mackerel, blue fin tuna
• George’s Bank- highly productive,
nutrient rich environment
• Prior to 1976, Russia, Japan, Norway,
& West Germany fished in Georges
Bank
Collapse of New England Fisheries

Magnuson Act passed & prevented

foreigners from fishing in U.S. waters
Fishery technology intensified and
resulted in overfishing
Harvests were beyond the max.
sustainable yield
Georges Bank closes after collapse
Some fish stocks begin to rebound
 Alaska Fisheries

• Halibut and sablefish

• IFQ
• Limited entry c1930’s
 Shark Overfishing

• Slow growth
• Low reproductive rate
• Late sexual maturity
 Orange Roughy

• Distribution: world wide, high concentrations in

New Zealand
• Found: 700-1000m depth
• Life span: slow-growing, long-lived, ~150 years
• Size: 30-40 cm
• Diet: prawns, fish, & squid
• Reproductive age: 25-30 years old
Fishing Techniques
Fishing Methods
• Harpoon - whales, swordfish, bluefin tuna
• Pole and line - mahi-mahi and used for tuna
extensively in the 50‘s
• Longline - swordfish, tuna (pelagic); cod,
halibut (bottom)
• Trolling - salmon, albacore, mahi-mahi
• Drift (gill) netting - various pelagic fish
• Trawl - anchovies (pelagic); cod, halibut
(bottom)
• Purse seine - sardines, herring, mackerel
• Traps and Pots - Crabs, lobster, rock fish
Drift Net

net size:
20 m x 65 km
Longlining
 Gill net

                                             

                                                            
                        

Bottom-dwelling fish
Purse seine
 Trawl

bottom
midwater
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUHcD_jTgVA
Before trawl

After trawl
 Trawl from space

Gulf of Mexico, near Louisiana coast. Individual vessels can be seen as bright
spots at end of sediment trails. Other bright spots are fixed oil and gas production
platforms. One sediment trail can be traced for 27 km. Assuming a standard
trawling speed of 2.5 knots, sediment from this trawl is visibly persistent for nearly
6 hours. Water depth <20m. Large, indistinct bright blue patches at lower left and
upper right are cloud/haze. (Credit: Landsat)
Allow nations to claim jurisdiction over their territorial
seas (contiguous sea beds and their waters that
extend off shore by 12 nautical miles)

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)

1. 200 nautical miles
2. under direct control of the country that owns the
nearest land

Regulates continental shelf resources:

• Fishing
• Mineral exploration
• Scientific research
Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States
Fisheries Problems & Solutions
A. Maximum sustainable yield: maximum amount of
fish that can be harvested without depleting
future stocks
B. World‘s maximum sustainable yield estimated at
100 to 135 million metric tons
C. Present harvests are at about 100 million metric
tons
D. For fisheries where numbers available, estimated
that 45% are currently over-fished
E. A number of fisheries have already collapsed
(Anchovy fishery off Peru, Cod fishery in the N.
Atlantic)
Fisheries Problems & Solutions
F. Bycatch (or bykill): animals unintentionally killed during
harvest of the target species
Trawling: Bycatch in shrimp trawling is very high (125 to
830% of the catch is discarded as bycatch), turtles often
caught in trawls.
SOLUTION: trawls with trap doors to let turtles escape
Purse seine: Tuna known to hang out under pods of
dolphins, nets set around pods of dolphins would result
in many drowning.
SOLUTIONS: Nets not set around dolphin pods and/or
employ — “backing down”, a technique that lowers
upper edge of net letting dolphins escape

Dolphins caught in tuna net

Fisheries Problems & Solutions

Driftnets: indiscriminate entangling of many sorts of

marine animals
SOLUTION: banned in oceanic fisheries (but some
countries still using them)
Fisheries Problems & Solutions
Long lining: Many albatross drown trying to snatch
bait from long lines being deployed. snagged on
hooks and pulled under.
SOLUTION: deploy in the dark or with special rig to
let line out under water.
 Global swordfish catch

450
400
Ave. wt. in lbs

350
300
250
N. Atlantic
200 Swordfish
150
100
50
0 http://www.pifsc.noaa.gov/wpa
1817 1861 1900 1961 cfin/hi/dar/Pages/hi_fish_2.php
year
Mariculture or Aquaculture
(marine agriculture)- farming
finfish, shellfish and algae under
favorable conditions

Big Island, Kona, Tilapia

One of every four
fish eaten today was
raised in either a fw
or sw fish farm.
84% of the 6 million to 7
million tons of seafood
consumed each year in the
U.S. is imported . About ½
comes from aquaculture.
H. Jones, Time, 2011.
Aquaculture also produces:
• Bait fish
• Ornamental or aquarium fish
• Aquatic animals used to
augment natural populations
• Algae for chemical extraction
• Pearl oysters
 Criteria for selecting species for
farming:
- inexpensive to grow
- grows quickly
- high sales price
- resistant to disease and parasites

tilapia barramundi catfish

Problems associated with Mariculture:

• Won’t make a dent in the shortfall in food

supply
• Fish food- fish meal
• Pollution
• Escapees
• Loss of natural habitat
• Loss of genetic diversity
• High stress overcrowding pens
• High concentration of
pathogens/parasites
Overcrowded Pens
Parasites & Disease

Salmon with lice

Pollution Under a salmon farm cage
Fish Vaccination
Integrated Aquaculture

Aquaponics
Hawaii open ocean aquaculture

Mio, big eye tuna, yellow tail

$34.7 million in 2008

 Artificial Reefs
Improve the local marine bio-density
1. attract schools of fish
2. providing habitats for the colonization
of commercially valuable species
3. improve the local inshore marine
harvest
May wash up
on beaches

tires ship wrecks construction rubble

 Threat to Marine Life
• Commercial fishing operations
• Pollution
• Habitat Degradation
• Trampling and beach combing
• Climate Change
 Threat to Marine Life
• Commercial fishing operations
– Overfishing
– Discards
– Bycatch
– Ghost fishing
– Use of deleterious fishing gears
Threat to Marine Life

Overfishing –
Threat to Marine Life

Overfishing –
Threat to Marine Life

Discards
Threat to Marine Life

Bycatch
 Threat to Marine Life

Cod End of Trawl Net

Use of small mesh

Threat to Marine Life

Deleterious fishing
Threat to Marine Life

Deleterious fishing gears in Nursery

Threat to Marine Life

Deleterious fishing gears in Nursery

Threat to Marine Life

High bycatch
Threat to Marine Life

Non Target Species

Threat to Marine Life

Non Target Species

 Threat to Marine Life
• Pollution
– Sewage Pollution
• Domestic sewage
• Industrial sewage
– Oil Pollution
– Solid waste disposal
– Thermal Pollution
– Light Pollution
Threat to Marine Life

Sewage Pollution
Threat to Marine Life

Sewage Pollution
Threat to Marine Life

Sewage Pollution
Threat to Marine Life

Oil Pollution
Threat to Marine Life

Oil Pollution
Threat to Marine Life

Solid Waste Disposal

Threat to Marine Life

Thermal Pollution
Threat to Marine Life

Light Pollution: Gwader by

night
 Threat to Marine Life
• Habitat Degradation

– Mangrove denudation
– Land reclamation
– Port Development
Threat to Marine Life

Mangrove denudation
Threat to Marine Life

Land reclamation
 Threat to Marine Life

Port Development-Sonmiani (Damb)

 Threat to Marine Life
• Trampling and beach combing
– Trampling
– Stone turning
– Disturbance to animals
– Beach Combing
Threat to Marine Life

Trampling
 Threat to Marine Life

Disturbance to Marine Animals

 Threat to Marine Life
• Climate Change
– Seawater intrusion
– Frequent cyclone
– Unpredictability of weather
– Sea Level Rise
Threat to Marine Life

Frequent Cyclone – 2A Cyclone

1999
Threat to Marine Life

Frequent Cyclone – Increased

Frequency
Threat to Marine Life

Seawater Intrusion: Indus

Creeks
Threat to Marine Life

Frequent Cyclone- Phet Damage

at Jiwani
Threat to Marine Life

Sea level Rise-Damb 2006

Threat to Marine Life

Sea level Rise-Damb- 2012

THANKS