The sustainability of fisheries in the Mediterranean and Black Sea remains a concern, but the proportion of overexploited stocks has fallen to its lowest level in ten years, according to a report published on Friday 28 November by the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
This positive trend coincides with the rapid expansion of aquaculture, which has become a major pillar of aquatic food production in the region.
The report confirms that regional cooperation and science-based management are bearing fruit. Fishing pressure has fallen by 50% in ten years, and several species are beginning to recover. Landings remain stable at around one million tonnes per year, with a slight increase in 2023.
Aquaculture. Marine and brackish water aquaculture has doubled in ten years, now accounting for 45% of total aquatic food production, or 940,000 tonnes in 2023. Fisheries, aquaculture and value chains produced 2.06 million tonnes, generated 21.5 billion dollars and supported 1.17 million jobs, according to the report.
“Stocks are not yet where we would like them to be, but they are beginning to recover thanks to science-driven management action and strong stakeholder engagement”, said Manuel Barange, Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the FAO.
Despite this progress, 52% of the stocks assessed remain overexploited. Between 2013 and 2023, fishing mortality fell sharply and the biomass of assessed commercial species rose by 25%.
Improvements are visible for species benefiting from multi-annual management plans:
- common sole (Adriatic): mortality down 42% since 2019, biomass up 64%;
- turbot (Black Sea): mortality reduced by 86%, biomass booming (+310% since 2013).
Red mullet and giant red shrimp show a clear reduction in fishing pressure. Conversely, sardines remain heavily overfished. European hake is doing slightly better (38% reduction in mortality since 2015).
When averaged over 2022–2023, Turkey remains the leading country in terms of landings (330,700 tonnes, or 31.4% of the total) and fleet size (14,400 fishing vessels), ahead of Italy (9,648 vessels and 112,500 tonnes).
The report: https://aeur.eu/f/jq4 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)