Overestimated Stocks: Fish even more threatened than assumed

Many fish stocks worldwide are threatened by overfishing because the size of the stocks and their ability to recover have been significantly overestimated in highly complex fishery models. Almost a third of the stocks classified as 'maximally sustainably fished' are actually overfished, and 85% more populations have collapsed than previously estimated.

Overfishing is particularly a problem in the Mediterranean, West Africa, and South Asia. Fisheries science has wrongly advised policymakers for years and bears responsibility.

A revision of the assessment procedures towards simpler, more realistic models is recommended, and the precautionary principle should be more strongly enforced. The phenomenon is also evident in the Baltic cod, whose biomass has often been overestimated too positively.

Despite years of warnings from scientists and environmental organizations, all once important cod and herring stocks in the Baltic Sea have been overfished to an extent that recovery is largely uncertain or even unlikely.