The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) claims there are "encouraging signs" in the recently released UN Fisheries & Agriculture Organisation's (FAO) The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020 (SOFIA) report, despite it indicating that overfishing is on the rise.

The report states overfishing has increased from 33.1 percent of wild stocks in 2018 to 34.2 percent. It said "sustainability failures are complex and need tailored solutions."

In response, Rupert Howes, CEO of the MSC, warned that if the seafood industry is to continue to meet future demand, it must accelerate the uptake of sustainable fisheries management globally.

"Over a third of fisheries are operating at unsustainable levels, with this trend continuing to worsen slightly. But there are encouraging signs," said Howes.

For species where effective management has been implemented, such as skipjack tuna, Alaska pollock and Atlantic cod, there have been improvements in stock recovery.

In fact, 78.7 percent of all fish landed now come from biologically sustainable stocks, said the report, while two-thirds of tuna stocks are now fished at biologically sustainable levels, an increase of 10 percentage points in just two years.

In general, it is becoming increasingly clear that intensively managed fisheries have seen decreases in average fishing pressure and increases in average stock biomass, with many reaching or maintaining biologically sustainable levels/ Fisheries with less-developed management systems are in poor shape, said the FAO report.

"The global seafood industry has already moved at speed to adapt to the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic. When we emerge from this crisis it is vital that we ‘build back better’ with sustainability at its heart," said Howes.

"We know what works: establishing science-based management regimes, ending harmful subsidies, effective harvest control rules and clamping down on illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing."

Fisheries

MSC takes positives from UN's SOFIA report despite signs of increased overfishing