Maximum Sustainable Yield - Overfishing

Overfishing

All around the world, from the arctic to the tropics, there is a crisis in the world’s fisheries.Template:Http://www.sciencemag.org/content/314/5800/787.short Until fairly recently it was assumed that our marine resources were limitless.

In recent years however, an accelerating decline has been observed in the productivity of many important fisheries. Fisheries which have been devastated in recent times include (but are not limited too) the great whale fisheries, the Grand Bank fisheries of the western Atlantic, and the Peruvian anchovy fishery. Recent assessments by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the state of the world’s fisheries indicate a levelling off of landings in the 1990s, at about 100 million tons.

In addition, the composition of global catches has changed. As fishers deplete larger, long-lived predatory fish species such as cod, tuna, shark, and snapper, they move down to the next level – to species that tend to be smaller, shorter-lived, and less valuable.

Overfishing is a classic example of the tragedy of the commons.