Global marine capture fisheries production has remained stable in recent years at around 79 million tonnes, while Asian fishery production continues to increase and now accounts for around 61% of total global production. Within Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia have seen consistent increases in fishery production over the past decade of around 29% and 28% respectively. However, many fisheries in the region are fully or overexploited. Unreported catch, including from illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, poses a major challenge. Inland fisheries production in Asia has also increased strongly over the past decade, rising 50% compared to 21% in the rest of the world. Fish consumption varies widely in the region depending

1. Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission
Regional overview of capture fisheries
in Asia and the Pacific 2014
Simon Funge-Smith
Secretary, Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

2. Global & regional trend in
capture fisheries
• Global marine capture
fisheries
– 79.7 million tonnes in 2012
– not increasing
– decreased over the previous
year
– low production from the
Peruvian anchoveta fishery
• Asian fishery production from
all marine waters continued
to increase
– 48.9 million tonnes in 2012
– ~61 percent of total global
production.
0
10,000,000
20,000,000
30,000,000
40,000,000
50,000,000
60,000,000
70,000,000
80,000,000
90,000,000
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Global Marine Capture
Fishery (tonnes)
Asia Marine Capture
(inc non-APFIC)

3. Sub-regions with stable or
declining production
• China
– very stable, rising and falling by only
one or two percent over the past
decade
– total decadal rise of 4%.
• Other Asia
– relatively stable with an overall
decline of 16% over the decade.
• Oceania
– rather large decreases in production
over the past 5 years
– decadal trend still an increase of 9%.
3
0
2,000,000
4,000,000
6,000,000
8,000,000
10,000,000
12,000,000
14,000,000
16,000,000
18,000,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
China
Other Asia

4. Rising production in South Asia & South East Asia
• Consistent increases in capture
fishery production
• Southeast Asia 29% past decade
– consistent slight annual increases of
2 to 4%,
• South Asia 28% past decade
– fluctuations more dramatic
increasing and decreasing by 5 to 8%
• Several effects
– increase in fishing effort and capacity
– expansion of the geographical range
of fishing activities
– Increase in biomass by fishing down
effects
– removing larger longer lived species
– higher biomass of short-lived small
fast recruiting species
4
0
2,000,000
4,000,000
6,000,000
8,000,000
10,000,000
12,000,000
14,000,000
16,000,000
18,000,000
20,000,000
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 201
SouthEast Asia
South Asia

5. Marine fisheries by sub-region
• APFIC focuses on three fishery sub-
regions
– Lie within the heart of the APFIC area (“Asia-
Pacific area”)
– Mainly EEZ waters of the APFIC membership in
Asia
– Relatively little high sea
Sulu Sea, Sulawesi Sea, Indonesian territorial
seas, Arafura-TimorBay of Bengal
South
China Sea

6. Challenges to getting reliable
production figures for fisheries
• Fish catches for sub-regions within
the large FAO statistical areas is a
challenge
• Majority national catch
– Little high sea in the APFIC sub-
regions
– Requires access to statistical data at
the sub-national level
• Foreign catches less important
– long distance fishing nations
• APFIC members do not, typically,
grant foreign fishing access to their
waters
– neighbouring countries may fish in
their waters, legally or illegally
• Unreported catch and the catch of
IUU fishing is greatest issue
FAO Area 57 - Eastern Indian Ocean
FAO Area 71 - Western Central Pacific
Ocean

7. Some countries indicate
continuous increase in production
• Does not reflect normal year by
year variations
– steadily increasing production
incorrect
• Annual % increase may seem minor
– aggregated effect is considerable
• Risk of continuous over-reporting
– leads to serious errors over successive
years
• Especially if the fishery is not
actually increasing
• Compare with survey and other
fishery assessment data
– Helps validate
> 140,000 tonnes
per year
> 80,000 tonnes
per year
> 63,000 tonnes
per year

8. 9% 6.7%
6%
Regional
contribution to
global marine catch
~18.7 million tonnes
21 % of global
marine catch

9. 39%
7.3 mmt 29%
5.4 mmt
25%
4.4 mmt
Within region contribution to
regional marine production
Note: East Indian Ocean and West Central Pacific
Note: excluding molluscs and plants

10. Using catch reconstructions
to investigate reported catch
• Catch reconstructions can adjust
for
– unreported catch
– IUU catch
– over-reported fishing
• Bay of Bengal example
– ~ 7.3 million tonnes reported to FAO
– ~ 10.7 million tonnes reconstructed
• Difference primarily due to:
– unreported catches from commercial
fisheries
– underestimation of artisanal catches
– catches lost to IUU fishing
– adjustments made for over-reporting
Unreported
catch
Reported
catch
Unreported
catch
Reported
catch

11. Bay of Bengal
Trend:
• Total catch increased
from 1950 to the mid-
1990s
• Reconstructed catches
flattened off 1990-2010
– Contrasts with reported
landings
– increase continuously
• Reconstructed catch
indicates
– up to 47 % unreported
catch in the sub-region
over 40 years
Continuously increasing
production reported
Reconstructed – increase
then level off

12. Bay of Bengal sub-region
• Overall catch ~7.3 million tonnes
– 50% unidentified! (small demersal?)
– ~35 % small pelagic spp.
– Higher value demersal spp. (19%)
– Crustaceans (14% )
– Large pelagic spp. (14%) mainly southern
part BOB
• Eastern side of the Bay
– substantial declines in fish stocks
– many of the species groups now overfished?
– Blurred by lack of detail (nei Myanmar)
• Who is catching it?
– large-scale, industrial sector increasing
– ~41% historical total
– levelling off or decline?
– Small-scale, small-commercial increasing
Bay of Bengal

13. South China Sea
• Overall catch
– 38% unidentified! (small demersal?)
– ~5.4 million tonnes?
• Northern part of the South China Sea
– Dominated by large pelagic species,
neritic tunas
• Small pelagics species are caught
throughout the sub-region
• Southern shelf areas
– small demersal species significant catch
– destined for surimi and processing
– significant % directed for fish meal
– Mainly unidentified marine fish nei
component
South
China
Sea

14. Sulu Sea, Sulawesi Sea, Indonesian
territorial seas, Arafura-Timor
• Catch ~4.4 million tonnes
– mainly Indonesia (~69%) ; Philippines (~30
percent); Timor Leste & Australia (< 1 %)
• Little scope for increasing catches
• Species
– demersal spp (inc. crustaceans) over-fished
– Small and large pelagic fisheries,
moderately/fully fished
– Arafura-Timor Sea fisheries - fully exploited
or over exploited
• Sub-region highly vulnerable to IUU fishing
– difficult to control
– early 2000 ~85 percent of vessels (~7 000)
>50 GT no licence
– Timor-Leste IUU loss of income ~US$36
million per year (2011)
– Sulu-Sulawesi sea ~33 percent of the catch is
IUU (2009)
Sulu Sea, Sulawesi Sea,
Indonesian territorial seas,
Arafura-Timor sea

15. IUU fishing the sub-regions
• Little high sea in three sub-regions
– domestic waters, territorial seas and EEZ areas
– combatting IUU fishing strongly national issue
• Enabled by lack of control over
– reflagging, dual flagging, joint ventures,
transhipping, access agreements, stateless
vessels, flags of convenience
• IUU catch of Eastern Indian Ocean and
Western Central Pacific
– ~1.3 – 2.7 million tonnes (2000-2003)
– ~10% of global IUU
• Other figures indicate this may be much
higher:
– Bay of Bengal ~3.4 million tonnes unreported
catch - how much IUU?
– Arafura-Timor Sea possibly ~ 1.5 million
tonnes per year
– Sulawesi Sea ~300,000 tonnes?
Taiwanese tuna longliner

16. Fishing labour & migration
• Straying of small scale fishing vessels
– variously tolerated
– Increasing maritime security tougher
– May spend long periods in confinement before repatriation
• Industrial fishing - transformation in mobility of fishing
labour past 15-20 years
– labour from Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Lao PDR,
Cambodia, Philippines and Bangladesh
– driven by rising labour prices
– enabled by easier movement of migrant labour
• Some vessels may stay at sea for years
– transhipping and refuelling, reprovisioning, crew change
– often in remote locations
– strongly linked to IUU fishing
• Shift to foreign labour reveals:
– weak controls on fishing vessels, lack of flag state
responsibility
– labour trafficking and illegal labour procurement
– documented cases of forced labour or slavery
Net repairs on a purse
seiner

17. MCS & VMS - increasing trend?
• Electronic monitoring systems (e.g. VMS)
– relatively limited use across the region
– Becoming a requirement in some fisheries for larger
vessels
– Large vessels may install for corporate benefit
– Still not used widely as a control on IUU
• Smaller vessels and artisanal fishers
– exploring low cost, low range systems
– assist with navigation
– observations of IUU fishing
– raising the alarm when a vessel is in distress.
• VMS/VPS service and equipment getting
cheaper
– financially viable option for many fishing vessels
– member countries need to establish systems for
monitoring and communication
– so these systems could contribute to monitoring of
IUU fishing
Malaysia wheelhouse
markings

18. Over-capacity in the fishing fleet and
on-shore processing industry
• Major driver of overfishing and IUU fishing
– 1980-1990s rapid growth in investment in fishing vessels
and on-shore processing
– Overfishing , declining catch quantity and less desirable
species
– Some signs that vessel numbers declining in some
fisheries
– driven by lack of economical viability
• Still substantial over-capacity
• Sustained by
– Subsidies: Fuel, vessel construction,, insurance or
compensation schemes
– Policies: lack of capacity controls, tolerance of IUU
landings, cheap foreign labour
– Technology shift and adaptation: utilize species less
economic species (e.g. for surimi)
– Aquaculture development: driving demand for fishmeal
• Strong influence on the ability of a fishery to
reform, particularly if the goal is reduction of fishing
capacity.
surimi
Fish meal
Fish for processing

19. Where does Asia’s fishmeal come from?
• Fish meal plant capacity increasing
• Demand will rise, even though % inclusion
declining
– Mainly got aquaculture
– increase in use of compound aquaculture feeds
– many aquaculture finfish feeds now relatively low
– especially freshwater species
• Production difficult to estimate.
– South China sea area ~ 641 000 tonnes, (mainly
Thailand (505 000)
– Bay of Bengal (low ~30 000 tonnes)
• The raw material
– fresh fish (when catches are unusually high)
– degraded fish that has been stored on board
– frames and trimmings from fish processing
• Thai fishmeal producers claim ~65 percent of
fishmeal derived from the processing wastes
– Use of wastes higher in Asian region than
elsewhere
Fish from
overseas
fishery
2%
Fresh pelagic
fish
15%
Low
value/trash
fish
18%
Surimi
processing
wastes
20%
Fish cannery
processing
wastes
35%
Wastes from
other seafood
processing
10%

20. Inland fisheries
Rice field fishing,
Myanmar

21. 20%
1%
13%
11%
8%
4%
3%
2%
2%
2%
1%
Regional contribution to
inland fishery production
66 % of global production
• 10 countries produce
97% of the region’s
inland capture of
inland fish
– South Asia 37%
– South East Asia 30%
– China 30%
• Large variations
within countries

22. Asian inland fishery
production
• Continuous strong increase
over decade
– rising 50%
– compared with 21% in rest of
the world
• Need better indicators for
inland fisheries production

23. >8 % per year 33 % per year
Some countries increasing
rapidly
• Significant
“jumps”
– >50% in one year
• Consistent annual
increases reported
– rather unlikely
even in the highly
variable inland
fisheries

24. Unlike marine fisheries, fishing is not typically the
main impact on the status of inland fishery resources
• Changing water flows
– Damming: 62 % Asian rivers
– dike and levee Construction
– diversions, irrigation abstraction
– Draining of wetlands
– Navigation
• Runoff and pollution changes
– Deforestation/land use changes
– Urbanization
– Pollution
– Acid deposition
• Exotic species
• Climate change
• Overharvesting
Most of these are
related to water
quantity and quality:
“environmental
flow”
Most solutions are
rarely “fishery
management
solutions”

25. Can we manage inland fisheries
better?
• Increasing competition and stress
on water resources
• Most impacts on inland fisheries are
related to water and habitat
quantity and quality:
“environmental flow”
• Most solutions are therefore rarely
“fishery management solutions”
• Some good opportunities (‘win-
win’) for innovation
• Will we always trade-off fisheries for
“the greater good”?
Freshwater flooded forest,
Songkhla Lake, Thailand

26. Fish trade & fish consumption

27. Asia remains a net exporter
of food fish
• Asia import–export is balanced
– Asia excluding China is net importer
– China strong surplus
• 50% of trade intra-regional
– Europe (18%)
– Latin America (11%)
– USA (12%)
• This balance does not apply to
products for consumption.
– significant import of fishmeal (1.67
million tonnes) and fish oil (72 334
tonnes)
– 111 951 tonnes of other inedible
products
• This balances exports
– principally frozen shrimp and
prepared fish products (including
canned fish and surimi).

28. Fish consumption is highly
variable across the region
• Asia Pacific countries have a
range of environments
– landlocked mountainous areas
– large tropical floodplains
– arid grasslands and
– oceanic tropical islands
• Affects accessibility to fish and
consumption figures vary
considerably
– 110.7 kg per capita per year in the
Pacific island of Tuvalu
– 0.18 kg per capita per year in
Mongolia and parts of western
China

29. Consumption by region
• Pacific Island Countries (16 states
surveyed)
– Tuvalu highest consumption (110.7
kg/capita/year)
– Papua New Guinea lowest (13
kg/capita/year)
• Southeast Asia (8 countries)
– Cambodia highest (63.5 kg/capita/year)
– Timor-Leste lowest (6.1 kg/capita/year)
• South Asia (4 countries)
– Sri Lanka highest consumption (15.3
kg/capita/year)
– Pakistan lowest (0.6 kg/capita/year)
• Inland landlocked countries
– Lao PDR 19.1 kg/capita/year
– reflects important role of fish in the diet
and freshwater resources
– Bhutan 5.6 kg kg/capita/year (imports)
– Mongolia 0.2 kg kg/capita/year
Artisanal dried fish products

30. Protein consumption from
fish in diet can be significant
• 10 Countries reported fish
contribution to protein in diet
• High
– Cambodia highest (37%)
– Myanmar significant (22%)
• Low
– India (2 %)
– Note ~31% population vegetarians and
lacto-vegetarians
– Hides the contribution part of the
population which does consume fish
– Mongolia 0.1 % negligible
Artisanal dried fish products

31. High: Cambodia, Myanmar, Philippines,
Indonesia, Sri Lanka
Medium: Bangladesh, Lao PDR,
VietNam, Pakistan, Thailand
Low : India, Mongolia, Bhutan
Fish
% Contribution of protein
in diet
2%
37%
22%
11%
3%
16%
10%
0.1%
9%
21%12%
9%

32. Fish consumption - Is there a
difference between urban
and rural areas?
• No clear divide between rural and urban
areas
– 13 countries rural consumption higher than
urban
– 9 other countries urban consumption was
higher
• Difference may reflect
– higher purchasing power of urban residents
– overall higher levels of consumption of food
– countries with large freshwater fishery
resources, but relatively high levels of rural
poverty
– e.g. Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Pakistan,
Sri Lanka, China, Papua New Guinea
• Rural areas higher than urban centres
– linked to proximity to the resource
– close to water bodies or inland fisheries;
near coastal fisheries
– Pacific island countries, Thailand, VietNam
and Myanmar
Dried river fish at roadside market

33. Thank you