The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Fisheries and aquaculture feed billions of people and employ millions, many in small-scale fisheries in coastal and island communities. Overfishing, illegal fishing, climate-driven shifts in stocks and habitat loss threaten both food and livelihoods. This page sets out how fish stocks and fishing communities respond to pressure, how stock status and catch are measured, and what evidence serves the fisheries managers and communities involved.
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Marine heat, sea surface temperature, chlorophyll and sea ice from satellite analyses, framed on Pacific Island states.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
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Fisheries sustainability is the ability of fish stocks to support catches over time without decline, together with the wellbeing of the communities that depend on them. It is threatened by overfishing, illegal fishing, climate-driven stock shifts and habitat loss, and small-scale fishers, with few alternatives, are hit first.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
Fisheries and livelihoods · Fishing grounds 3 · Season 1
| Small pelagic | 0.8 | 1.4 | Overfishing |
| Reef fish | 0.6 | 1.5 | Overfished |
| Tuna-like | 1.2 | 1.0 | Sustainable |
Fish stocks, food security and local economies. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
When catches exceed what a stock can replace, biomass declines and future catches fall. Subsidies and open access can sustain overfishing after it stops being profitable.
Fish shift toward cooler water and higher latitudes. Fisheries lose stocks they managed, gain new ones, and agreements between countries no longer match where fish are.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing undermines management, depletes stocks and takes catch from legitimate and small-scale fishers.
Small-scale fishers often lack insurance, savings and alternatives. Stock declines, storms and market shocks hit their income and food security first.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Maximum sustainable yield | The largest average catch that can be taken from a stock over time without reducing its productivity. |
| IUU fishing | Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, which undermines fisheries management and legitimate fishers. |
| Small-scale fisheries | Fishing by households and small enterprises with limited capital, often for local food and income. |
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels | percent of assessed stocks | per assessment | SDG indicator 14.4.1 | OFFICIAL |
| Capture fisheries production | tonnes | annual | National catch reporting to FAO | REPORTED |
| Aquaculture production | tonnes | annual | National reporting to FAO | REPORTED |
| Fishing effort | fishing hours by area | daily | Satellite vessel tracking | ESTIMATED |
| People employed in fisheries and aquaculture | count | annual | FAO employment statistics | REPORTED |
| Implementation of instruments against IUU fishing | score | per reporting cycle | SDG indicator 14.6.1 | OFFICIAL |
The topic as a computational graph: named sources feed the methods, an evidence review gates the outputs, and the decisions stay with the authorities that hold them.
Fig. 02Nodes carry their type, two metric rows and a state; connectors show what feeds what; dashed frames name the owners; the timeline is the cadence. Design of the pipeline, not a record of a run.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| FAO FishStat and the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture | Global catch, aquaculture, trade, employment and stock status | Open, FAO terms (to check) |
| Global Fishing Watch | Fishing activity estimated from vessel tracking | Open, licence per dataset (CC BY-SA or non-commercial, to check) |
| Sea Around Us | Reconstructed catches including unreported catch | Open, licence to check |
| RAM Legacy Stock Assessment Database | Compiled stock assessment results | Open, licence to check |
| Regional fisheries management organization reports | Stock assessments and management measures | Public records, terms per organization |
Oceans and Coasts prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Fisheries ministries and management bodies | What catch limits and measures to set | Stock status; effort maps |
| Regional fisheries management organizations | How to allocate shifting stocks between members | Stock shift analyses |
| Social protection and development agencies | How to support fishing communities through shocks | Livelihood profiles |
| Port and enforcement authorities | Where to focus inspection against illegal fishing | Vessel tracking evidence |
Stock size reflects recruitment, growth, natural mortality and fishing mortality. Overfishing reduces stocks below the level that would produce the highest sustainable yield and can make them more sensitive to environmental variability. Climate change acts by shifting species distributions poleward and deeper, changing primary productivity, and altering the timing of spawning and migration. Stocks that cross national boundaries create allocation disputes when they move.
Livelihood effects depend on dependence and adaptability. Small-scale fishers with limited gear and access cannot follow stocks far, and fishing communities often have few other sources of income. Aquaculture can supplement supply but brings its own risks from disease, pollution and feed sourcing. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing undermines both stocks and the data used to assess them.
Markets add another channel. Prices, export demand and trade restrictions can change fishing pressure as much as ecological conditions do, and food security depends on whether local consumers keep access to affordable fish.
Catch, effort and survey data feed models of stock size and fishing mortality; data-poor stocks rely on simpler indicators.
Models link species to ocean conditions to project shifts; they assume relationships hold as conditions change.
Household and market surveys measure dependence and vulnerability; coverage of informal fisheries is often thin.
Limits: many stocks, especially in tropical and small-scale fisheries, lack formal assessments. Under-reported catch biases models, and projections of climate effects carry wide ranges.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.