Overfishing worse than thought

Tropical fishermen catch far more species than reported officially.

Mark Schrope

Global fisheries statistics generally paint a grim picture of ocean health, revealing rampant overfishing and declining fish catches in various regions. But a new study suggests that, in the tropics at least, the statistics have been telling only half the depressing story — if that.

The work, presented Tuesday at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, suggests that for fifteen of twenty tropical island nations and territories examined, subsistence and recreational fishing has gone almost completely unreported over the past half-century. Such fishing actually collects a volume of reef fish at least as great as official statistics show, and in most cases much more.