Tracking the global footprint of fisheries

TLDR

Industrial fishing now harvests more than half of the world's fish and covers an area four times larger than terrestrial agriculture, driven by growing human dependence on ocean protein. The study used AIS data from all industrial fishing vessels to map and quantify global fishing effort. Fishing effort is driven more by social and political schedules than by economic or environmental factors, indicating that stronger management measures are needed for sustainability. Kroodsma et al., Science, this issue p.

Abstract

More than half the fish in the sea As the human population has grown in recent decades, our dependence on ocean-supplied protein has rapidly increased. Kroodsma et al. took advantage of the automatic identification system installed on all industrial fishing vessels to map and quantify fishing efforts across the world (see the Perspective by Poloczanska). More than half of the world's oceans are subject to industrial-scale harvest, spanning an area four times that covered by terrestrial agriculture. Furthermore, fishing efforts seem not to depend on economic or environmental drivers, but rather social and political schedules. Thus, more active measures will likely be needed to ensure sustainable use of ocean resources. Science , this issue p. 904 ; see also p. 864