Vanishing Fish

Shifting Baselines and the Future of Global Fisheries

Daniel Pauly

• Publisher: Greystone Books
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781771643993
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Natural Resource Extraction Industry
• Index: Technology & Engineering

"Daniel Pauly is a friend whose work has inspired me for years."
—Ted Danson, actor, ocean activist, and co-author of Oceana

"This wonderfully personal and accessible book by the world's greatest living fisheries biologist summarizes and expands on the causes of collapse and the essential actions that will be required to rebuild fish stocks for future generations."
—Dr. Jeremy Jackson, ocean scientist and author of Breakpoint

The world's fisheries are in crisis. Their catches are declining, and the stocks of key species, such as cod and bluefin tuna, are but a small fraction of their previous abundance, while others have been overfished almost to extinction. The oceans are depleted and the commercial fishing industry increasingly depends on subsidies to remain afloat.

In these essays, award-winning biologist Dr. Daniel Pauly offers a thought-provoking look at the state of today's global fisheries—and a radical way to turn it around. Starting with the rapid expansion that followed World War II, he traces the arc of the fishing industry's ensuing demise, offering insights into how and why it has failed.

With clear, convincing prose, Dr. Pauly draws on decades of research to provide an up-to-date assessment of ocean health and an analysis of the issues that have contributed to the current crisis, including globalization, massive underreporting of catch, and the phenomenon of "shifting baselines, " in which, over time, important knowledge is lost about the state of the natural world.

Finally, Vanishing Fish provides practical recommendations for a way forward—a vision of a vibrant future where small-scale fisheries can supply the majority of the world's fish.

Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute

Endnotes

1. 
   THE FOLLOWING NOTES consist of the original footnotes, endnotes, and references for the contributions reprinted in this book or, when preceded by N.N. (for New Note), of the notes that were added to provide context or updates for this edition.
2. ¹ Jackson, J.B.C., M.X. Kirby, W.H. Berger, K.A. Bjorndal, L.W. Botsford, B.J. Bourque, R. Cooke, J.A. Estes, T.P. Hughes, S. Kidwell, C.B. Lange, H.S. Lenihan, J.M. Pandolfi, C.H. Peterson, R.S. Steneck, M.J. Tegner, and R.R. Warner. 2001. “Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems.” Science 293: 629–638.
3. ² N.N. This contribution, reprinted here with permission, was originally published as Pauly, D. 2009. “Beyond duplicity and ignorance in global fisheries.” Scientia Marina 73(2): 215–223. It acknowledged the Honorable Mr. José Montilla, President of the Generalitat of Catalonia (Spain), and the Management and Jury of the Ramon Margalef Prize for awarding me this prize. I thus had the opportunity to prepare the initial version of this essay, which, although concerned mainly with fisheries management, also deals with aquatic ecosystems. Ramon Margalef studied mainly the lower trophic levels of aquatic ecosystems, so with my account here, covering mainly their upper trophic level, we have them covered, as the phrase goes, “from end to end.” My gratitude also goes to Drs. Marta Coll, Isabel Palomera, and John Celecia and to Ms. Teresa Sala Rovira, who all contributed to my sojourn in Catalonia, and to Dr. M.P. Olivar for explicitly inviting the original version of this essay, and suggesting its title.
4. ³ N.N. Obviously, national catch statistics existed long before 1930, while statistics for specific fisheries can go back centuries; see, e.g.: Ravier, C. and J.M. Fromentin. 2001. “Long-term fluctuations in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean bluefin tuna population.” ICES Journal of Marine Science 58: 1299–1317.
5. ⁴ Ward, M. 2004. Quantifying the World: UN Ideas and Statistics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
6. ⁵ N.N. Every two years, the FAO also publishes extremely valuable analyses of trends in fisheries data, in the form of a report called the State of Fisheries and Aquaculture, or SOFIA, available from their website. For comments on SOFIA 2016, see: Pauly, D. and D. Zeller. 2017. “Comments on FAOS State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA 2016).” Marine Policy 77: 176–181.
7. ⁶ This observation is based on experience teaching fisheries science in four languages on five continents and interacting with hundreds of colleagues, but with a bias toward developing countries.
8. ⁷ N.N. In spite of the following paper’s title, the issue of missing catches and their distorting effect on long-term trends was not addressed in Garibaldi, L. 2012. “The FAO global capture production database: A six-decade effort to catch the trend.” Marine Policy 36: 760–768.
9. ⁸ N.N. For trends in cumulative engine power, see: Anticamara, J.A., R. Watson, A. Gelchu, and D. Pauly. 2011. “Global fishing effort (1950–2010): Trends, gaps, and implications.” Fisheries Research 107: 131–136, and Watson, R., W.W.L. Cheung, J. Anticamara, U.R. Sumaila, D. Zeller, and D. Pauly. 2013. “Global marine yield halved as fishing intensity redoubles.” Fish and Fisheries 14: 493–503.
10. ⁹ N.N. See: http://www.seaaroundus.org for such data, covering the years 1950 to 2004 at various scales. E.g., Countries’ EEZS, Large Marine Ecosystems, FAO Major Fishing Areas.
11. ¹⁰ Radovich, J. 1981. “The collapse of the California sardine industry: What have we learned?” In: Resource Management and Environmental Uncertainty, edited by M.H. Glantz and D. Thomson, 107–136. New York: Wiley.
12. ¹¹ Beverton, R.J.H. 1990. “Small pelagic fish and the threat of fishing: Are they threatened?” Journal of Fish Biology (Suppl. A): 5–16.
13. ¹² Muck, P. 1989. “Major trends in the pelagic ecosystem off Peru and their implications for management.” In: The Peruvian Upwelling Ecosystem: Dynamics and Interactions, edited by D. Pauly, P. Muck, J. Mendo, and I. Tsukayama, 386–403. ICLARM Conference Proceedings 18. Manila: International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management.
14. ¹³ Castillo, S. and J. Mendo. 1987. “Estimation of unregistered Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) in official catch statistics, 1951 to 1982.” In: The Peruvian Anchoveta and its Upwelling Ecosystem: Three Decades of Changes, edited by D. Pauly and I. Tsukayama, 109–116. ICLARM Studies and Reviews 15. Manila: International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management.
15. ¹⁴ N.N. The Castillo/Mendo estimate was confirmed by a subsequent study available on http://www.seaaroundus.org (see: Peru), and summarized in Mendo, J. and C. Wosnitza-Mendo. 2016. “Peru.” In: Global Atlas of Marine Fisheries: A Critical Appraisal of Catches and Ecosystem Impacts, edited by D. Pauly and D. Zeller, 366. Washington, DC: Island Press.
16. ¹⁵ Hardin, G. 1968. “The tragedy of the commons.” Science 162: 1243–1248.
17. ¹⁶ Pauly, D. 2007. “On bycatch, or how W.H.L. Allsopp coined a new word and created new insights.” Sea Around Us Project Newsletter 44: 1–4.
18. ¹⁷ Pauly, D. and J. Maclean. 2003. In a Perfect Ocean: The State of Fisheries and Ecosystems in the North Atlantic Ocean. Washington, DC: Island Press.
19. ¹⁸ Rose, A. 2008. Who Killed the Grand Banks: The Untold Story Behind the Decimation of One of the World’s Greatest Natural Resources. Mississauga, ON: John Wiley and Sons.
20. ¹⁹ Jackson, J.B.C., M.X. Kirby, W.H. Berger, K.A. Bjorndal, L.W. Botsford, B.J. Bourque, R. Cooke, J.A. Estes, T.P. Hughes, S. Kid...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Duplicity and Ignorance in Fisheries
• Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish
• Major Trends in Small-Scale Fisheries
• ITQS: The Assumptions Behind a Meme
• Putting Fisheries Management in Its Places
• Fisheries Management: For Whom?
• Fishing More and Catching Less
• Bycatch Uses in Southeast Asia
• On Reconstructing Catch Time Series
• A Global, Community-Driven Catch Database
• Catches Do Reflect Abundance
• The Shifting Baseline Syndrome of Fisheries
• Further Thoughts on Historical Observations
• Consilience in Research
• Focusing One’s Microscope
• Homo Sapiens: Cancer or Parasite?
• Academics in Public Policy Debates
• Worrying About Whales
• Not the Fisheries Committee
• My Personal Odyssey I: On Becoming a Canadian Fisheries Scientist
• My Personal Odyssey II: Toward a Conservation Ethic for the Seas
• My Personal Odyssey III: Having to Science the Hell Out of It
• Epilogue: Some Gloom, but Surely No Doom
• Abbreviations and Glossary
• Endnotes
• Index
• Copyright Page