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Marine and Inland Fisheries Service
Fisheries and Aquaculture Resources Use and Conservation Division
FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department
Preparation of this document
This document, the Review of the state of world manne fishery resources, was prepared by the Marine and Inland Fisheries Service, Marine and Aquaculture Resources Use and Conservation Division, FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. It is part of the regular programme activities and a partial fulfilment of the Organization's role with regards to the monitoring and reporting on global marine resources and relevant environmental and ecological changes. The main objective of this review is to provide the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI), policy-makers, fishers, civil society and managers of world fishery resources with a comprehensive, objective and global review of the state of the living marine resources. This document updates the information provided in FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 457, Review of the state of world manne fishery resources, issued in 2005, and also updates and expands the information provided in relevant fishery resources sections of the more recent FAO publications on The state of world fish enes and aquaculture (SOFIA). It is intended that this Review of the state of world marine fishery resources will be completely revised every five years, with briefer updates provided biennially.
Relevant sections of this review have been compiled by FAO and selected invited experts, as indicated by the authorship of each chapter. Yimin Ye was responsible for the general coordination and final technical editing of this document, with the valuable assistance of David Milton. Fabio Carocci prepared tables and illustrations for this report.
Abstract
Marine fisheries are very important to the economy and well-being of coastal communities. Maintaining the long-term prosperity and sustainability of marine fisheries is not only of political and social significance but also of economic and ecological importance. This review presents an updated assessment of the current status of the world's marine fishery resources. Its aim is to provide the FAO Committee on Fisheries, policy-makers, civil society, fishers and managers of world fishery resources with a comprehensive, objective and global review of the state of the living marine resources of the oceans. The review was based mainly on official catch statistics up until 2009 and relevant stock assessment and other complementary information...