On average, fish sticks are increasing in much of the world: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/4/2218 https://www.pnas.org/content/117/4/2218 https://sustainab

On average, fish sticks are increasing in much of the world: https://www.pnas.org/content/117/4/2218 https://www.pnas.org/content/117/4/2218 https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/science-of-seaspiracy/ https://sustainablefisheries-uw.org/science-of-seaspiracy/ > Among the assessed stocks in the database, the average fishing pressure increased and the biomass declined on average until 1995, when fishing pressure began to decrease. By 2005, average biomass had started to increase (Fig. 1B). Averaged across all stocks in the database, biomass in 2016 was higher than BMSY, and fishing pressure was lower than UMSY. However, improvement is still needed for 24% of stocks, accounting for 19% of potential catch, which still have low biomass and high fishing pressure compared with MSY-based targets > Since the mid-1990s, catch has generally declined in proportion to decreases in fishing pressure and was, in 2016, at 54% of where it was in 1989 for assessed stocks (Fig. 1B). This pattern is also observed at the regional level, where the correlation between exploitation rate and catch is generally >0.8 (Fig. 2). Global catch as reported by the FAO also declined during that period, but less so than for the assessed stocks reported here, likely because fishing effort in the parts of the world without assessment has not declined (18). > Regions that have average biomass near or above BMSY are Australia, Atlantic Ocean tunas, Canada West Coast, European Union non-Mediterranean, Indian Ocean tunas, Norway/Iceland/Faroes, New Zealand, Pacific Ocean tunas, Alaska, the US Southeast and Gulf, and the US West Coast. Although these regions have not avoided the overfishing of all stocks, conservative management has kept most stocks at high biomass. Many areas where biomass was below BMSY in 2000 have seen reductions in fishing pressure and stock increases, including the Atlantic Ocean tunas; the East, Southeast, and Gulf coasts of the United States; the Canada East Coast; and the Northwest Pacific Ocean (Japan and Russia). Tuna stocks in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which were well above BMSY in 1970, were near BMSY in 2016. > Stocks in the Mediterranean-Black Sea have low biomass and continue to decline, whereas stocks in South America have declined considerably in the last 20 y and were below target levels in 2016. Fishing pressure in South America has been dropping since the early 2000s. Only 4 of 36 stocks in NW Africa have MSY-based reference points for biomass estimated, all of which are large-volume, small-pelagic fisheries and are therefore unrepresentative of the many demersal fisheries in the region. The stock abundance for those small-pelagic stocks is above MSY targets, but exploitation rates were high (2.5 times UMSY) for the 6 NW African stocks for which exploitation rate reference points exist. Regional assessments (19) estimated that most demersal stocks were overexploited by 2008 and recommended reductions in fishing pressure. It is of course difficult to create and enforce a regulatory regime to prevent overfishing, but there tends to be buy-in among fisherman once their fisheries collapse.