Global efforts to combat overfishing are starting to turn the tide to allow some fish stocks to recover, new analysis shows.  Research from an international team of scientists shows that a handful of major sustainable fisheries across the world have managed to reduce the rate at which fish are exploited.

The experts say that their studies offer hope that overfishing can be brought under control, but they warn that conservation measures in Ireland and the North Sea are not doing enough to allow stocks to recover.  Close to 63% of assessed fish stocks worldwide still require rebuilding to replenish their population some scientists report.

"Across all regions we are still seeing a troubling trend of increasing environmental problems of stock collapse," said Dr Boris Worm, an ecologist at Dalhousie University in Canada.  "The encouraging result is that the exploitation rate (overfishing rate), the ultimate driver of depletion and collapse, is decreasing in over half the 10 systems we examined.  This means that the management and conservation measures in those areas are setting the stage for ecological and economic recovery.  It's only a start, but it gives me hope that we have the ability to bring overfishing under control."

Sustainable fisheries are winning the battle against overfishing in countries such as the US, Iceland and Australia.  Although there are some regions progressing, fishermen in Ireland and the North Sea are still catching too many fish which is causing more environmental problems and not allowing stocks to recover.

Pamela Mace of the New Zealand ministry of fisheries, who helped to write the new study, said: "Sustainable fisheries managers currently presiding over depleted fish stocks need to become fast followers of the successes of these conservation measures.  We need to move much more rapidly towards rebuilding individual fish populations, restoring the ecosystems of which they are a part, and fixing these environmental problems if there is to be any hope for the long-term viability of sustainable fisheries and fishing communities."

The new analysis used data from fishing catch logs, current fish population, scientific surveys, small scale fishery data, and modeling results.  This analysis highlighted catch quotas, localized fishing closures, and bans on selected fishing gear that allow smaller fish to escape as measures that will help fish stocks to recover.  Agencies in areas such as Alaska and New Zealand have led the world in fights against environmental problems such as overfishing by acting before the situation became critical and these conservation measures were necessary.  Fish abundance is increasing in previously overfished areas around Iceland, the northeast US shelf, the Newfoundland Labrador shelf, and California waters.  This has benefitted a variety of species such as the American plaice, pollock, haddock, and Atlantic cod.

"Some of the most spectacular conservation measures have involved bold experimentation with closed areas, gear and effort restrictions, and new approaches to catch allocations and enforcement," the scientists say.   Scientists caution that the study of these environmental problems cover less than a quarter of world’s sustainable fisheries, and the lightly to moderately fished and/or rebuilding ecosystems comprise less than half of those.

These isolated success stories, scientists say, "may best be interpreted as large scale restoration experiments that demonstrate opportunities for successfully rebuilding marine resources elsewhere."  Many nations throughout Africa sold the rights to fish in their waters to wealthy developed countries that have been overfishing and have exhausted their own stocks.  This move could undermine all local efforts to tackle overfishing made by small scale sustainable fisheries such as those in Kenya, which are highlighted in the new study.

The North Sea, the Baltic, and the Celtic-Biscay shelf sustainable fisheries are all still declining.  Here, Atlantic cod and herring are still declining, while global populations of large predators such as sharks and rays are in rapid decline.

The new survey marks a public truce in a war of words between Worm, a conservationist, and fellow author Ray Hilborn, a fisheries expert at the University of Washington in Seattle.  The spat followed a 2006 study by Worm that made some dire predictions about the state of the world's fisheries, including the claim that most stocks could collapse by 2048 if present trends and environmental problems continued.  Hilborn criticized the research to be "sloppy" and said the 2048 claim had absolutely "zero credibility" because it used only simple records of fish caught to say whether stocks had collapsed.

Dr Ana Parma, an author of the study done with the Centro Nacional Patagonico in Argentina, said: "This is the first exhaustive attempt to assemble the best available data on the status of sustainable fisheries and trends in exploitation rates (overfishing), a major breakthrough that has allowed scientists from different backgrounds to reach a consensus about the status of fisheries and actions needed."

After reading this article please keep in mind that we all need to play a part in conservation as we are all true outdoorsmen (and women).  It is a requirement that we do our part to preserve this amazing past time so that our future generations can enjoy the same passion we hold dear. 

Do you have any new and innovative ideas that could possibly be used to protect our marine life? Please leave a comment below on the outdoor news section and find all your fishing sporting goods at PoorFish Outdoors.