Preface

Summary

A flood of introspection has overtaken fishery science in recent years, and it would be easy to conclude that everything worth writing had already been written. But the recent literature generally avoids criticism of the central and ancient axiom that fisheries are sustained by the density-dependent increase in growth that is provoked by fishing: what has come to be referred to rather inexactly as surplus production. Uncritical acceptance of this axiom then permits the assumption that fishing ought to be sustainable, provided only that appropriate economic and stock management methods are employed. On the other hand, the recent literature has also been characterised by analyses of the present situation of fish stocks that can only be described as alarmist, and which have been widely reported in the press and other media.

Confidence in the theoretical underpinning of fishing has nevertheless been confirmed at recent international meetings of administrators and natural and social scientists, gathered to discuss the crisis in world fisheries. A review of the documents presented at meetings such as the 1995 Rome Consensus on World Fisheries, or the 2004 World Fisheries Congress, reveals few expressions of doubt concerning theoretical sustainability of fisheries. Instead, the participants call for actions ‘to eliminate overfishing, rebuild fish stocks, minimise wasteful fishing practices, develop sustainable aquaculture, rehabilitate fish habitats, and develop fisheries for new and alternate species based on principles of scientific sustainability and responsible management’. Note the use of the loaded term ‘overfishing’ (which I shall largely eschew) and the fact that this text lies at the heart of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. Similar conclusions concerning the unquestioning adherence to the axiom may be drawn from quite different discussion groups, such as the scientific forum organised by the Royal Society in London in 2004 on ‘Fisheries: past, present and future’; there, too, the participants appear not to have seriously questioned the sustainability of fishing, and the theoretical basis of fishery science, provided only that social, economic and some ecological processes could be factored into management.