45
3 Fisheries Production and Market Demand
However, the flip side of the ‘live fast die young’ life strategy is that most fished
species live for only 1 year and have little-overlapping generations, so if fisheries
were to fish out a generation of recruits, there would be almost no reserve of old
adults to repopulate the stock. The fact that this scenario remains largely hypothetical is probably at least partly a consequence of the plasticity of the life cycle (Pecl
et al. 2004). Although breeding of temperate species tends to be seasonal, it is also
hugely variable and animals in breeding condition can present at most times of the
year.
Their extreme environmental sensitivity also makes cephalopods rather unpredictable and unreliable fishery resources. Although the extent varies, most exploited
species (and especially oceanic squids) show hard-to-predict year-to-year fluctuations from high to low abundance. It seems likely that this has discouraged the
development of directed fisheries in some areas; anecdotal evidence for this exists
in Scotland (Smith 2011).
3.3 What is the Status of Cephalopod Capture Fisheries
in Different Parts of the World?
Cephalopod fisheries fall into three general categories. Firstly, there is large-scale
directed fishing, often using jigging machines, as in the major ommastrephid (shortfinned) squid fisheries mentioned below, or, sometimes, trawling. Secondly, a substantial proportion of landings of loliginid (long-finned) squid arise as by-catch,
typically from demersal trawling. Finally, a wide range of small-scale directed fisheries exist, for squid, cuttlefish and octopus, using a range of artisanal gears (see
Sect. 3.4).
At a global level, fishery statistics are available from FAO. Various caveats apply
to these data: they refer to landings and ignore discards, they often group several
species together into broad categories, they may be biased by inaccurate recording
of legal landings and by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and
some countries are (at best) slow in providing data. In the North Atlantic, landings
data are also compiled by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
(ICES), potentially offering greater temporal, spatial and taxonomic resolution than
is available from FAO (although not consistently so), but still far from being a perfect data source. In various parts of the world, including European Atlantic coastal
waters, abundance indices are also available from trawling surveys. The FAO divides the world into 18 fishery regions, of which only the three Antarctic regions report few or no landings of cephalopods. Between 1950 and 2007, world cephalopod
landings rose from around 500,000 t annually to a peak of more than 4 million t.
The most recent annual total (for 2010) is around 3.5 million t annually, an apparent
decrease which is evident in trends from several regions (FAO 2011; see Fig. 3.1).
Two previous review papers (Caddy and Rodhouse 1998; Hunsicker et al. 2010)
examined the general state of world cephalopod fisheries. Caddy and Rodhouse
(1998) noted how cephalopod landings were increasing in most regions even
though finfish landings were no longer increasing and suggested that overfishing on
3 Fisheries Production and Market Demand
However, the flip side of the ‘live fast die young’ life strategy is that most fished
species live for only 1 year and have little-overlapping generations, so if fisheries
were to fish out a generation of recruits, there would be almost no reserve of old
adults to repopulate the stock. The fact that this scenario remains largely hypothetical is probably at least partly a consequence of the plasticity of the life cycle (Pecl
et al. 2004). Although breeding of temperate species tends to be seasonal, it is also
hugely variable and animals in breeding condition can present at most times of the
year.
Their extreme environmental sensitivity also makes cephalopods rather unpredictable and unreliable fishery resources. Although the extent varies, most exploited
species (and especially oceanic squids) show hard-to-predict year-to-year fluctuations from high to low abundance. It seems likely that this has discouraged the
development of directed fisheries in some areas; anecdotal evidence for this exists
in Scotland (Smith 2011).
3.3 What is the Status of Cephalopod Capture Fisheries
in Different Parts of the World?
Cephalopod fisheries fall into three general categories. Firstly, there is large-scale
directed fishing, often using jigging machines, as in the major ommastrephid (shortfinned) squid fisheries mentioned below, or, sometimes, trawling. Secondly, a substantial proportion of landings of loliginid (long-finned) squid arise as by-catch,
typically from demersal trawling. Finally, a wide range of small-scale directed fisheries exist, for squid, cuttlefish and octopus, using a range of artisanal gears (see
Sect. 3.4).
At a global level, fishery statistics are available from FAO. Various caveats apply
to these data: they refer to landings and ignore discards, they often group several
species together into broad categories, they may be biased by inaccurate recording
of legal landings and by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and
some countries are (at best) slow in providing data. In the North Atlantic, landings
data are also compiled by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea
(ICES), potentially offering greater temporal, spatial and taxonomic resolution than
is available from FAO (although not consistently so), but still far from being a perfect data source. In various parts of the world, including European Atlantic coastal
waters, abundance indices are also available from trawling surveys. The FAO divides the world into 18 fishery regions, of which only the three Antarctic regions report few or no landings of cephalopods. Between 1950 and 2007, world cephalopod
landings rose from around 500,000 t annually to a peak of more than 4 million t.
The most recent annual total (for 2010) is around 3.5 million t annually, an apparent
decrease which is evident in trends from several regions (FAO 2011; see Fig. 3.1).
Two previous review papers (Caddy and Rodhouse 1998; Hunsicker et al. 2010)
examined the general state of world cephalopod fisheries. Caddy and Rodhouse
(1998) noted how cephalopod landings were increasing in most regions even
though finfish landings were no longer increasing and suggested that overfishing on