New Working Definition of ‘Destructive Fishing’
A new working definition of “destructive fishing” has successfully been drafted following a rigorous consultation process involving 80 fisheries experts from over 30 countries.
Many policies and international frameworks, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, recognize the need to end destructive fishing practices to conserve marine resources, protect the ocean, and ensure peace and prosperity for people and the planet. However, despite its widespread use, “destructive fishing” is currently undefined and therefore immeasurable.
The working definition, which has been described in a paper published in Conservation Letters, provides a consensus-led draft for leaders to build upon in international policy discussions and will meaningfully support countries to prohibit destructive fishing practices.
The project team comprised Fauna & Flora, Brunel University London, BirdLife International, University of Cambridge, Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg, and the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
They define destructive fishing as: “any fishing practice that causes irrecoverable habitat degradation, or which causes significant adverse environmental impacts, results in long-term declines in target or non-target species beyond biologically safe limits and has negative livelihood impacts.”
To form consensus on the working definition, the Delphi technique–an anonymous, iterative process of expert consultation–was used to synthesize the opinions of a range of 80 fisheries experts representing 32 nationalities, including academics, practitioners in NGOs, and those working directly in the fishing industry and associated fields.
Now that a starting definition has been proposed, the ambition of the project team is to work with policy makers to further develop a consensus-built definition of “destructive fishing” at international policy forums to encourage adoption of the definition at an international and national level.
The team also aims to pilot approaches to measure the prevalence and magnitude of destructive fishing, through a Monitoring Framework launched in 2023. The framework outlines the types of evidence that could be used to determine whether and how destructive fishing is taking place, providing national governments and the private sector with a crucial tool to identify and mitigate destructive fishing.