Sustainable Fishery Management Balancing Economic Development and Ecosystem Conservation

The implementation of sustainable fisheries management strategies demands that productivity be maintained without jeopardizing conservation in light of increasing exploitation, environmental changes brought about by global warming, and increased efforts to catch fish. In this context, this paper aims to assess modern fishery management strategies in eight regions with diverse ecological and economical environments through the analysis of both demersal, pelagic, coral reef, freshwater, and tuna fisheries. MSY standards were matched with actual fishing yields; furthermore, ecological and socio-economic metrics for ecosystem-based fisheries management practices were also analyzed in each of the selected regions. It was found that four of the regions had harvests that surpassed MSY standards, with their levels of exploitation varying between 109.9% and 146.3%; out of these four, only one region was classified as transitional while the rest were overexploited. With regards to the fisheries net present value under the ecosystem-based approach with adaptive adjustment of quotas, the growth will amount to 45.5% during the period between 2025 and 2045. The economic loss from over-exploitation will amount to about USD 38.6 billion. It has been found that rights-based incentives, precautionary harvest control measures, adaptive governance, and stakeholder engagement can be used to enhance ecological soundness and development of the fishery industry.