Good news! Worldwide, fish stock is on the rise

Here’s one catch of the day you don’t want to miss: Scientists have found that half the world’s fish stocks are recovered or increasing in oceans that used to be overfished.

A research team published their latest report in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” and found that fish are mostly increasing. The report measures harvest rate, recovery rate, fishing pressure, population numbers and additional metrics from 50% of the world’s fisheries.

Worldwide, fish stock is on the rise.

On average, fish stocks are increasing where they are assessed. Where fisheries are intensively managed, the stocks are above target levels or rebuilding,” noted the report.

The report talks about the simple reasons why this trend is on the rise: a sustainable approach helps protect and improve our resources.

Marine fish are crucial to the world’s food system — more than 250 million people depend directly on fisheries and aquacultures for their livelihoods and millions more rely on fish for their daily protein. Fish stock started to decline worldwide due to overfishing and lack of sustainable practices in fisheries. And as stock declined, NOAA Fisheries began to keep track.

“The efforts of the thousands of managers, scientists, fishers, and nongovernmental organization workers have resulted in significantly improved statuses of fisheries in much of the developed world, and increasingly in the developing world,” said the report authors.

This just shows that when we all work together we can make a wave of difference.