1998 Year of the Ocean 



Ocean Living Resources 



of "overfished" and "overfishing." Fishery Management Plans are currently being amended 

 based on this definition and it is likely that additional stocks will be identified as overfished. 



Fig. 1. Status of Fisheries 



Fully Rshed 

 25% 



Overfished 

 35% 



Appnoaching 



CXerfshed 



4% 



Developing 



Rshery 



40% 



Overfished 

 31% 



Status of World Fisheries 



Based on 200 major fish resources. 



Source: FAO 1996. 



Status of U.S. Fisheries 



Based on 279 of 727 federally managed 



species for which sufficient data are 



available. 



Source: NMFS 1997. 



Armual U.S. catches have fluctuated between 4.5 and 5.0 million tons since 1990 and the 

 gross first-sale value has not varied much from an armual average of $3.5 billion. To put these 

 quantities and revenues in perspective, the United States is the fifth largest fishing nation, and its 

 catch represents about 5 percent of world totals. 



Internationally, FAO estimates that without major changes in fishery management, 

 landings will not be able to exceed current levels despite increased demand from growing 

 populations, and could in fact be reduced by as much as 25 percent (FAO 1996). In recent years, 

 the fishery sector's contribution to the world's growing food needs has been supported largely by 

 a booming inland and coastal aquaculture sector. The culture of marine species offers important 

 opportunities for enhancing global food production and food security. Indeed, aquaculture is the 

 fastest growing segment of U.S. food production. Without careful planning and oversight, 

 however, aquaculture in marine and coastal environments can have negative impacts on natural 

 biodiversity. These impacts include: 



• habitat degradation (e.g., intentional destruction of mangroves in shrimp culture or 

 unintentional negative impacts on benthic communities from the buildup of wastes 

 under culture pens); 



• eutrophication; 



C-10 



