The status of Asian fisheries – meeting the demands for food and feeds

Simon Funge-SmithSecretary

Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

Some general trends in marine capture fisheries

• The Asia-Pacific region continues to be the world’s largest producer of fish.

– world’s largest producer of fish for decades (47 million tonnes)

– 51 % of global capture production – China largest producer in the region (34%

of total regional production). • South and Southeast Asia catch trends show

consistent increase– masking underlying fishing effects – serial depletion of higher trophic level

species – more short-lived, lower-trophic level

species. • Need for action to implement management

measures not being clearly communicated. – leads to a false assumptions– e.g. suggests there is still significant

potential for further expansion of fishing.

South East Asia

South Asia

China

1950 2008

Issue of reporting species composition – not elsewhere included (‘nei’)

• Not identified to species, order, or family level – 14.3 million tonnes – 30% of capture production

• Southeast Asia 41%• China 31%• South Asia 38%

• China has improved its reporting on individual species. – ‘nei’ reports reduced from

52 % (2002) to 31 % (2008)

South China Sea & Gulf of Thailand region

• The production trends of the past 10 years do not reveal the changes very clearly

– majority of the impact is presumed to have taken place during the massive expansion of fisheries effort between 1975 and 1985.

• There have been clear ecosystem level effects– Recent data for the past 10 years indicate that

the South China Sea area has reached a low level plateau

– Ecosystem dominated by small species– Lower value species are being utilized (surimi,

canned fish, fishmeal, aquaculture feeds)– loss of higher value larger species – Fisheries having to work harder to catch a lower

value product. • May reflect the tendency towards maximizing

employment in the fishery • Trade-off is lower economic efficiency and

product quality

1960

1980

Declining biomass abundance

How it is possible to increase total catch

Total catch

Large demersals

Large Pelagics

Small demersal Small Pelagics

Time (years)

` Catch

• Catch increases• Species composition changes• Increases up to a point – ecosystem turnover....

?

?

Proportion of higher values species in catch declining

• Large demersal species– Declining in many fisheries– Slight increase in parts of

Indonesia. • Larger pelagic species

– Increasing percentage of catch of in the last 10 years

– May reflect increasing effort to target these species

• Crustaceans– Declined in a majority of areas

• Sharks and rays– Declining

% Landings

Large demersal 3 - 17

Small demersal 6 - 12

Large pelagic 7 - 32

Small pelagic 15 - 60

Anchovy/Sardine 4 - 22

Trash fish/low value fish 16 - 25

Surimi species 3 – 13

Shark/rays 0 - 2

Squids/cuttlefish 2 - 7

Crustaceans 2 – 7

Proportion of lower value fast recruiting species increasing

• Small pelagic species (including sardines and anchovies)

– Northern South China Sea increased from 30 to 60% of catch

– Increasing elsewhere in South China Sea• Trash and low value fish

– Large contribution to total catch in region– The relative proportion declined recently– Increased use for human consumption – Also linked to rising costs of trawling?

• Small demersal species– Stable or slightly increasing over past 10

years• Surimi species

– Massive increase in demand for surimi species

– Small demersal species specifically utilized for surimi production.

– The relative catch increased in all assessed areas

% Landings

Large demersal 3 - 17

Small demersal 6 - 12

Large pelagic 7 - 32

Small pelagic 15 - 60

Anchovy/Sardine 4 - 22

Trash fish/low value fish 16 - 25

Surimi species 3 – 13

Shark/rays 0 - 2

Squids/cuttlefish 2 - 7

Crustaceans 2 – 7

Indicative fishery assessments & stock assessments

Depleted or Over-fished

Fully-fished

Moderately/Under-fished

• Few assessments available..... – national EEZ cover almost the entire

South China Sea– indicator for the state of the sub-

region.• Large demersals and small demersals

– overfished in a majority of the areas. • Large and small pelagics

– overfished or fully fished in a majority of the cases.

• Stocks of anchovies and sardines – overfished in a majority of the

assessed fisheries. • Low value/trash fish species

– fully fished • All assessed stocks of surimi species

– overfished. • Squids/cuttlefish and crustacean

– fully fished or overfished

Note: VietNam data missing

CPUE/ catch rates

• Trends in CPUE can indicate fishing impacts• A declining CPUE is normal when a fishery

is developed– Considered a bad situation when CPUE falls

below ~50 % of initial value – ~20% of initial values should be considered as

the limit• Majority of the assessed fisheries

– CPUE and catch rates are declining– CPUE values available indicate decline 21-68%

over 20 year period– trawl fisheries, purse seine fisheries, net

fisheries• Northern part of South China Sea

– Large decrease in CPUE (>50%) over the past 30 years and even over the past decade

Some Asian fisheries becoming “low value/trash fish” fisheries

• Some Asian fisheries are evolving into “trash fish” fisheries– Fishing to supply aquaculture with feeds– Declining investment in fisheries management

(perception nothing can be done, no rent)– Reluctance to make hard management decisions

• Policy & perverse subsidies– Aquaculture promotion (low taxes, limited

environmental regulation)– Fuel costs subsidized - trawling for lower value

catch– Aquaculture is not paying the ‘real price’ for its

feeds• Aquaculture products may be preferred by

supermarkets/food industry– Standardized: size, quality , food safety

Total production of low value/trash fish species in the South China Sea region

• Estimated at 8.3 – 10.3 million tonnes. – The proportion of trash fish varies vary

according to area– Low value/trash fish is consistently more than

20 percent of overall catch– Considerably higher for the trawl fisheries

(more typically 40-60 percent)

• Demand onshore for this is booming – aquaculture demand– keeps operations profitable despite impact

on fishery

Fish meal

• Derived largely from the low value/trash fish catch– Some targeted small pelagic fisheries which

are directed into fish meal production.• Processing wastes from capture fish and

aquaculture are significant – trimmings and processing waste from fish

processing – converted to fishmeal– 56% of fishmeal derived from this source– Globally the figure is only 25%– also utilized directly as livestock or fish feeds

• fisheries – from canning, filleting , heading• aquaculture - shrimp heads/wastes,

pangassius processing wastes

Fishmeal production - East Asia

Source: IFFO 2008 compiled data from IFFO members, FAO and Oilworld

(‘000 tonnes)

Country Total FishmealFishmeal

from Process waste

Thailand 468 278

Japan 203 192

China 141 10

Korea RO 50 10

Vietnam 46 26

Malaysia 44 19

Taiwan POC 18 13

Indonesia 15 5

Cambodia 3 2

Total (region) 988 555 (56%)

Total world 4,818 1,196

Flow of fish for food and feed in East Asian region

Note: Aquaculture production does not include filter feeding molluscs and plants

CAPTURE FISHERIES

AQUACULTUREActual fishmeal demand ~3.0 ?Livestock

pigs 0.9poultry 0.3

FISHMEAL 1.1 – 1.9

FISH FOR FOOD

FISHFOR FEED

Discarded bycatch

FISHMEAL Trimmings

0.56

36.8

0.3 ?

Million tonnes

6.4 – 8.41.9

?

IMPORT FISHMEAL

2.2 Wastes Direct feeding

1.8 ?

1.2

Low value/trash fish8.3 -10.3

34.8

26.2 – 28.2

Surimi 1.3

Ballpark estimates of aquaculture’s demand

• Fed with fresh/low value/trash fish– 2.42 million tonnes of marine/coastal species produced– carnivorous fish, crustacean & mollusc species – Fed mainly low value/trash fish production– Conversion ranges from 3 upto >6– Requires 6.4 – 8.4 million tonnes fresh fish for feed?

• Fed with supplemental or formulated feeds– 26.7 million tonnes including: shrimp, pangas catfish,

tilapia, carps• not all based on formulated feed• formulated feed fishmeal inclusion varies 3-32%

– Conversion varies 1 - 2 (kg feed per kg fish produced)– Fishmeal demand ~3.0 million tonnes?

• Balance– total regional production and import = 3.2 million tonnes– 1.2 million tonnes used by livestock– so this does not balance

Key points

• Data on feeds and fishmeal is very poor– 26 million tonnes of captured fish for food– 36 million tonnes of aquaculture fish for food*

• Upto 10.3 million tonnes of captured fish for feeds or surimi– 1.3 million tonnes for surimi (~0.32 million tonnes

surimi)– 6.4 – 8.4 million tonnes fresh fish feeds for aquaculture– 1.94 million tonnes for fishmeal (could be higher)

• Fishmeal– 1.1 million tonnes fishmeal produced (FAO figures differ)– 2.18 million tonnes fishmeal imported– 3.2 million tonnes fish meal available– 0.56 million tonnes fishmeal/crustacean meal derived

from trimmings/processing**• Fishmeal demand for aquaculture could be >3.0 million

tonnes

*Does not include filter feeding molluscs and plants ** Capture fishery & aquaculture product processing

Capture production of surimi species

• The production of surimi in the region has increased dramatically over the past decade – > 321,250 tonnes in the South

China Sea region. – conversion of ~3.5– ~1.34 million tonnes fresh fish

• Reflection of several drivers: – improved processing techniques – increasing use of species

previously regarded low value trash fish category.

• Need to track – quantity of surimi produced – sources and quantities of raw

materials

Management challenges - Fleet capacity

• There is significant over-capacity in the fishing fleets of the region

• ~1.64 million fishing vessels operating in the South China Sea region– majority are small- scale vessels.

• Obtaining good estimates of vessel numbers continues to be a challenge this sub-region. – Incomplete vessel registers and records

Management challenges - Fishery zoning and management measures

• All the countries have zoning of their EEZ– two or more zones and some having up

to four different zones.

• Closed areas and closed seasons are common in the near shore zone– Also Marine Protected Areas

• Gear restrictions and licensing– Varyingly applied– Problems with compliance in many

areas

• Size limits (e.g. fish length) and quotas are not used by any of the countries the region as a management measure.

Key messages - state of resources

• Coastal and many EEZ resources subject to high fishing effort for past 30-40 years– poor data/records on state of resources– many fisheries have weak management– limited management for sustainability or

biodiversity• Shifting species composition

– small pelagics, low value and trash fish predominating East Asia

– drives interest to develop fisheries for fish meal/feed fisheries

• Aquaculture demand is a strong driver for landings of small/lower value species– generating concern in importing countries– demand for certified feeds?– very poor information on fresh/pellet feed use

Key messages - Improved utilization

• Increasing efforts to utilize capture fish for food or feeds– Surimi/human foods– Fishmeal/ animal feeds– aquaculture producing more food fish than fisheries

• Reports of decreasing catches of trash fish/low value fish – Reflects greater utilization and disaggregation e.g. surimi– need more accurate data on aquaculture feeding

• Emerging interest in finding small pelagic fisheries which can be certified for fishmeal production– for production of certified animal feeds (e.g. pet foods and

aquaculture feeds) – generally to demonstrate the increased responsibility of fish

meal fisheries.• Fishmeal derived from processing wastes of fisheries and

aquaculture are important– These may be more certifiable in the short term

Thank you!Thank you!