Deep-Sea Fisheries and

Fish stocks
Merete Tandstad
FAO

Overview of presentation:
1. Main fishing areas globally
2. Main species and regional variations
3. Vessels and gears
4. Catch Trends
5. Addressing impacts
6. Concluding remarks

Major Deep-sea Fisheries Areas - North Atlantic

Major Deep-sea Fisheries Areas - South Atlantic

Major Deep-sea
Fisheries Areas N & S Pacific and
Indian Ocean

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Second level
Third level
Fourth level
Fifth level

Major Deep-sea Fisheries Areas - Mediterranean

Main Species

Catch composition-variation between regions

Gear types

List of vessels authorized to fish in deep-sea

fisheries in the high seas
45
40
35
30
25
Trawlers
Gillnetters
Longliners
trap setters

20
15
10
5
0
the Cook Islands

Spain

France

Estonia

Japan

Korea

Deep sea catches

Difficulty in determining data only for the high seas
12000000
Epipelagic: tunas
Epipelagic: other species
Deep-water species

10000000

8000000
tonnes
6000000

4000000

2000000

2008

2006

2004

2002

2000

1998

1996

1994

1992

1990

1988

1986

1984

1982

1980

1978

1976

1974

1972

1970

1968

1966

1964

1962

1960

1958

1956

1954

1952

1950

Catch trends- 4 Examples

orange roughy
100 000
90 000
80 000

150000

70 000
60 000
50 000
40 000

100000

30 000
20 000
10 000
0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

50000

Indian Ocean

0
1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 2008

Atlantic Ocean

toothfis hes
40 000
35 000

pelagic armo
urhead

alfons inos
16 000
14 000
12 000

1 400

25 000

1 200

20 000
15 000

1 000

10 000

10 000

800

8 000

5 000

600

6 000
4 000

400

2 000

200

0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Indian Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

30 000

0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Indian Ocean

0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Indian Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

Environmental concerns

1. Target species

Sustainability (in
relation to
abundance, life
history traits and
life cycle)

2. Bycatch species

Sustainability (in
relation to
abundance and
life history traits)

3. Ecosystem
structure
& functioning

Direct and
indirect impacts
on ecosystem
structure and
functioning

Impacts on Vulnerable Marine Species/habitats

coldwater corals of various types

e.g., reef builders and coral forest

sponge grounds
communities composed of dense
emergent fauna

Evaluating impacts and risks of a fishery- EAF tools

Fishery
Ecological
Well-being

Socio-Economic
Wellbeing

Ability to Achieve

Administration Governance
Community
Target Species
Socio economic
By
catchNational
and
at 2 different
Impact oflevels
External
impacts
both
Non Retained
Environment
protected
species
Natural and human induced
General
Habitat impacts
Ecosystem
Trophic Changes
Retained

Calculating consequences for seabed habitats in relation

to bottom trawling
Susceptibility and productivity scores for various seabed habitats and bottom

trawling

- Use of geological surrogates, scientific surveys and fisher knowledge

1.72

1.80

3.13

3.88

3.88

3.64

3.57

3.18

K. Sainsbury,
2009

3.61

Some Issues
Assessing problems with implementation of the

Guidelines
EIAs, risk assessments, VME identification, mitigation measures,

stock assessments, species identification, data limitations

Opportunities
Working with industry to improve data and information, stimulate
exchange of lessons learned, VME database, species identification
guides, and data collection protocols