In its latest version of the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture (SOFIA) report, the FAO says that only three percent of marine stocks are underexploited and that 21 percent of the stocks could sustain a minor increase in fishing effort.
It also said 52 percent of fisheries are now fully exploited, 16 percent over-exploited and seven percent depleted. Only one percent have recovering from depletion. FAO assistant director for Fisheries Ichiro Nomura said that as well as a need to rebuild depleted stocks there was a need to prevent the same happening to those areas still considered healthy. The SOFIA report also urges the industry worldwide to look towards the goal set at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development to restore depleted stocks to healthy levels by 2015. Currently, according to FAO, seven of the top 10 marine stocks were either fully or over exploited meaning that any increase in fishing effort would lead to severe bilogical and economic problems. The Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, Northwest Atlantic, Southeast Atlantic, the Southeast Pacific and the Southern Ocean were identified as the most endangered regions.
