Fisheries play an essential role in feeding the global population and providing jobs and livelihoods to coastal communities. Yet, today, this is coming under threat from unsustainable fishing practices.

This edition of the Review of Fisheries examines developments in the fisheries policies of countries and emerging economies with major fisheries sectors. Its central message is that policies to ensure the long-term viability of fisheries, and to protect and restore ocean resources and ecosystems, can be reconciled with policies to address short-term socio-economic goals. However, policy reforms need to be accelerated if progress is to be made on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which seeks to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”.

Fisheries have a fundamental role in feeding the global population, and creating jobs and resilience in coastal communities. However, fish stocks must be managed sustainably in order to meet these socio-economic goals while preserving aquatic and ocean biodiversity and the provision of the ecosystem services on which the “blue economy” relies. Based on the latest available data reported by OECD countries and partner economies, the Review of Fisheries 2020 sheds light on how governments are addressing the key challenges faced by their fisheries and suggests priorities for action both at the national level and for the international community. This chapter discusses its main findings.

Healthy fish stocks are fundamental for maximising sustainable catch, or its value, which itself is key to providing food-security, jobs and incomes in the long-term. Healthy stocks are also vital for maintaining aquatic biodiversity, and the provision of ecosystem services on which several other sectors of the blue economy rely. With Sustainable Development Goal 14, countries collectively agreed to restore all fish stocks at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield by 2020 and to implement science-based management plans. To help fisheries management authorities deliver on these commitments, this chapter provides newly assembled comparable information on the status of fish stocks as well as on how fish stocks of key species are managed, at the level of individual countries and economies.

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a serious threat to fisheries and fisheries-dependent communities that impairs the development of a sustainable ocean economy. Eradicating IUU fishing requires closing waters and markets to IUU operators and the products they harvest globally. Based on a survey conducted in 2019, this chapter reviews the policies that countries and economies apply in the fight against IUU fishing and evaluates the extent to which internationally-recognised best practices in some of the most important areas for government intervention against IUU fishing have been adopted. It identifies the regulatory loopholes and policy gaps that need to be addressed and provides information on effective measures that could be adapted and replicated across countries and economies.

This chapter describes government support policies to fisheries: the mix of policies being used, their magnitude, the contexts in which they are applied, and their potential impacts in terms of different policy objectives. It does so using the OECD Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) database – the most comprehensive, detailed, and consistent collection of country level data on support to fisheries reported by governments – and by building on the OECD’s most recent analysis of the relative impact of different types of support policies. The analysis aims to help countries deliver on their commitments to Sustainable Development Goal 14, which seeks to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development” and calls for reforming support to fisheries such that, at a minimum, it should not compromise the sustainable use of resources. It also seeks to inform World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations on fisheries subsidies.

Good governance is fundamental to ensuring the equitable and sustainable management of global fisheries and to facilitate policy change. This chapter presents the results of two OECD surveys which collected data on key elements of governance systems for national and multilateral fisheries. It examines decision-making processes, the use of data for evidence-based policymaking, the role of advisory groups to facilitate stakeholder participation and to increase transparency of fisheries governance, and the role of primary institutions in charge of fisheries policy with a view to increasing policy coherence between different sectors of the blue economy.