To ensure that benefits from capture fisheries accrue to nationals, fisheries regulations and acts prioritize local access and harvest rights in near and distant waters within a nation’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The lack of local capital to finance industrial fishing, such as trawling, has compelled developing coastal countries’ fishermen to access foreign investment through contractual agreement such as hire-purchases.

The Fisheries Performance Indicators is a data collection tool that allows comparable fisheries data in the environmental, economic and community dimensions to be collected even in data-poor environments. In this paper, data collected for  35 fisheries in 14 African countries that make up 54.8% of Africa’s reported fish landings are analyzed and compared to global averages. Similar to a previous global analysis, our results indicate no trade-offs between the different pillars of sustainability, as all are positively correlated.

With many countries seeking to increase the area conserved in marine protected areas (MPAs) to achieve the Convention on Biodiversity’s protected area targets by 2020, we employ a bioeconomic model to determine which configurations of MPAs that meet area targets perform the best for secondary goals, including fishing yield, rural income, fish stocks, and sea turtle conservation.

Bait tuna boats in developing coastal countries compete for small pelagic stocks such as anchovy that are primarily targeted by artisanal fishers. The tuna vessels are typically foreign owned, their catches are exported, and the vessels pay taxes to the resource-rich countries; by contrast, the artisanal fishers exploit the small pelagic stocks to support their livelihoods. In addition, the technologies employed in catching the baitfish (i.e., intermediate input) may destroy the benthic floor of the management area of artisanal stocks.

This study compares the performance of the industrial deep-sea shrimp fishery in the Colombian Pacific prior to and following important management reforms aligned with the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. The Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs) methodology was applied to examine changes in the ecological, economic and social outcomes brought about by the reforms. The analysis revealed that regulatory reform improved environmental performance through increases in stock size and

The rebuilding of collapsed fisheries is a major challenge for fisheries science and management, requiring multi-faceted evaluations to assess the current and potential performance of recovering fisheries. Single-dimensional analyses such as stock abundance assessments are only partially effective in determining the best course of action for fisheries in this condition.