World marine fisheries 1975-2025: Fifty years of change

Abstract

This paper, as if written in the year 2025, reviews the influences and resulting changes in the marine capture fisheries of the world and in their management during the last quarter of the 20th Century and the first quarter of the 21st. Influences range from Treaties (such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and the Convention on Biological Diversity), Agreements (such as the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development, and the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries) and public awareness, through environmental and biological events, and the growth of knowledge and the understanding of ecosystems, to factors likely to influence the mix of coastal and distant-water vessels.