April 24, 2024 — In 2006, a study featured in the New York Times went viral. This study claimed that virtually all fished species would disappear by 2048 due to overfishing if current trends continued.
The claim was met with backlash by fisheries scientists and disproven with many follow up studies. Part of what caused this misunderstanding in 2006 was that fisheries science is very technical and can easily be misunderstood by the general public.
“The U.S. definition of overfishing is anytime your harvest rate is higher than the level that would produce maximum long-term yield,” Ray Hilborn, a professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences (SAFS) at UW, said.
A common misconception is that if a stock is determined as “overfished,” the stock is in danger of extinction. This is only true in very extreme cases, Hilborn explained. The real result of overfishing is depletion of a stock, ultimately leading to lower long-term yields.
Scientists in the field of fisheries management provide advice unique to each wild capture fishery’s objective, which is then used to set catch limits enforced by the federal and state legislature.