F I S H E R I ES
Table 2: Scoring system for deriving uncertainty bands for the quality of time series data of reconstructed catches, adapted from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Pauly & Zeller, 2016, forthcoming).
Score
Confidence Interval +/ %
Corresponding IPCC criteria
2016 EPI Penalty
4 Very High
10
High agreement and robust evidence
0%
3 High
20
High agreement and medium evidence or medium agreement and robust evidence
75%
2 Low
30
High agreement and limited evidence or medium agreement and medium evidence or low agreement and robust evidence
50%
1 Very Low
50
Less than high agreement and less than robust evidence
25%
Investments Needed for Improved Fisheries Data Fisheries experts debate what fish catch data indicates about global fish abundance and fisheries management, but there is consensus that better data are needed. The only fisheries data collected and made publicly available in 80 percent of maritime countries are weight estimates of annual fish landed.239 Fisheries catch data, although imperfect, provides a useful signal on which to base an indicator. Marine experts agree that improved data is critical for sustainable fisheries management, and creating a comprehensive dataset will be expensive. Fisheries scientists Ray Hilborn and Trevor Branch at the University of Washington estimate that focusing on six to eight fisheries in 40 countries alone will take a decade and cost $20 million USD.240 The effort would require continuous monitoring and the application of up-to-date technology to better track catch data. Until these improvements are realized, we have to rely on crude proxies that provide a signal of global fisheries management.
239 Pauly, D., et al. (2013). 240 Pauly, D., et al. (2013).
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