Back at the fly shop, swilling on a hoppy brew, the inflated catch rate is steadily swelling. The guide’s mathematically magical formula looks something like this: Whatever number client X got to hand, add 10. Ass hooked. Leader stroked. SJ worm sniffed. Saw a GOOD one rise. Yep, those count. But in the grand scheme of global fish tallying, a phenomenon of the opposite nature is occurring.

Earlier this week an alarming study surfaced, showing that countries are underreporting the number of fish caught worldwide. The glaring inaccuracies have made it harder for fisheries officials to understand the health of fish populations. And that dearth of accurate data is a roadblock to drawing up relevant fishing policies that limit plundering.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), world marine catch peaked in 1996 at 86 million metric tons. But that number is way off says a new study from University of British Columbia’s Sea Around Us project, which shows that global catches actually peaked at 130 metric tons, in 1996, and have since declined by about 1.2 million metric tons every year.

The discrepancy stems from difficult-to-track categories such as artisanal, subsistence, and illegal fishing, as well as discarded fish. And researcher Daniel Pauly warns, “Our results indicate that the declining is very strong and the declining is not due to countries fishing less. It is due to the countries fishing too much and having exhausted one fish after the other.” On the flip side, Pauly hopes that with fishing restrictions and better management—the Bristol Bay sockeye fishery is an example—world fish stocks can reach a sustainable level.

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Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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