Data from: Catch reconstructions reveal that global marine fisheries catches are higher than reported and declining

Fisheries data assembled by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
suggest that global marine fisheries catches increased to 86 million
tonnes in 1996, then slightly declined. Here, using a decade-long
multinational ‘catch reconstruction’ project covering the Exclusive
Economic Zones of the world’s maritime countries and the High Seas from
1950 to 2010, and accounting for all fisheries, we identify catch
trajectories differing considerably from the national data submitted to
the FAO. We suggest that catch actually peaked at 130 million tonnes, and
has been declining much more strongly since. This decline in reconstructed
catches reflects declines in industrial catches and to a smaller extent
declining discards, despite industrial fishing having expanded from
industrialized countries to the waters of developing countries. The
differing trajectories documented here suggest a need for improved
monitoring of all fisheries, including often neglected small-scale
fisheries, and illegal and other problematic fisheries, as well as
discarded bycatch.