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Humanity has never benefited more from the ocean as a source of food, livelihoods, and well-being, yet on a global scale this has been accompanied by trajectories of degradation and persistent inequity. Awareness of this has spurred policymakers to develop an expanding network of ocean governance instruments, catalyzed civil society pressure on the public and private sector, and motivated engagement by the general public as consumers and constituents. Among local communities, diverse examples of stewardship have rested on the foundation of care, knowledge and agency. But does an analog for stewardship exist in the context of globally active multinational corporations? Here, we consider the seafood industry and its efforts to navigate this new reality through private governance. We examine paradigmatic events in the history of the sustainable seafood movement, from seafood boycotts in the 1970s through to the emergence of certification measures, benchmarks, and diverse voluntary environmental programs. We note four dimensions of stewardship in which efforts by actors within the seafood industry have aligned with theoretical concepts of stewardship, which we describe as (1) moving beyond compliance, (2) taking a systems perspective, (3) living with uncertainty, and (4) understanding humans as embedded elements of the biosphere. In conclusion, we identify emerging stewardship challenges for the seafood industry and suggest the urgent need to embrace a broader notion of ocean stewardship that extends beyond seafood.

Economic development in regional areas is a high priority social and political objective in Australia. Regional and rural coastal towns have suffered as a result of the declining value of primary production from traditional industries, including fishing, farming and forestry. As a result, attention has shifted to alternative employment and revenue sources, especially from service industries such as tourism and hospitality. Using a case study of the New South Wales (NSW) South Coast fishing industry combined with a review of global trends gaining prominence in food systems, we argue that primary industries-like professional fishing-are now well positioned to foster a revival in rural and regional communities. Consumer interest in food provenance and sustainability, a movement towards 'localism', and the growth in food-based tourism have created new opportunities for the sector. The industry will, however, need support from regional development agencies to assist the transition to new business models, and recover from a prolonged, and at times traumatic, period of reform.

2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Longtail tuna (Thunnus tonggol) is a neritic species that supports commercial, artisanal and recreational fisheries throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Historically receiving little attention by commercial fisheries, the global annual catch of longtail tuna has steadily risen from around 30,000 t in the early 1980s to exceeding 200,000 t since 2004, reaching a peak of 291,264 t in 2007, and was 281,613 t in 2017. Catches of longtail tuna in the Indian Ocean now exceed catches of principal commercial target species, such as albacore and bigeye tunas. A sequence of stock assessments undertaken throughout the species' range since the late 1980s persistently indicated that at least three of the four stocks defined in this paper are likely to have been, and most likely are currently, subject to overfishing and overfished as a result of excess fishing effort on this relatively slow-growing and long-lived tuna species. As the spawning biomass of principal tuna target species continue to decline in both the Indian and western and central Pacific Oceans, the increasing catches of longtail tuna, other neritic tunas, and seerfishes is worrisome. Few conservation and management measures (CMMs) are currently in place specifically for longtail tuna, although in recent years some coastal States, Regional Fishery Bodies, and tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations have begun to develop initiatives to improve the catch and biological data quality for longtail tuna and sympatric species of neritic tunas and tuna-like species. This paper provides a global review of biological, ecological and fishery information to provide researchers, fishery managers and policy makers with the most current information from which to begin to guide future stock assessment and the development of CMMs for longtail tuna.

China is the world's largest capture fisheries and aquaculture producer. Over recent decades, China's domestic marine catch composition has changed markedly, from large volumes of a few high‐valued food species to multiple, small, low‐valued, species, a significant proportion of which is primarily used as animal, especially fish, feed. Despite the growing volume and economic importance of the feed catches, their species composition, catch volumes and socio‐environmental impacts are all poorly understood. Based on a nationwide survey of >800 fishing vessels, and the identification and measurement of >12,000 fish and invertebrate individuals, the present study provides an overview of the feed component of China's domestic marine catch, by volumes, species and sizes, and found it to be substantial and biologically unsustainable. Half of the trawler catch (3 million metric tons, mmt), or 35% of the total catch (4.6 mmt) in China's exclusive economic zone, are now comprised of low‐valued "feed‐grade fish". The present study identified 218 fish species, 50 crustaceans and five cephalopods, and of these, 102 fish species were food species with 89% individuals in their juvenile size ranges. Feed‐grade fish were mainly used as aquaculture feed directly, or indirectly, through the feed industry after reduction to fishmeal and fish oil. The unparalleled scale and poor fisheries resource condition of China's domestic marine fisheries, in parallel with severe overfishing of juveniles, creates a demand for fundamental changes to fishery management practices, including a significant reduction of fishing effort to ensure productivity and ecosystem resilience.

China's 13th Five-Year Plan, launched in March 2016, provides a sound policy platform for the protection of marine ecosystems and the restoration of capture fisheries within China's exclusive economic zone. What distinguishes China among many other countries striving for marine fisheries reform is its size- accounting for almost one-fifth of global catch volume-and the unique cultural context of its economic and resource management. In this paper, we trace the history of Chinese government priorities, policies, and outcomes related to marine fisheries since the 1978 Economic Reform, and examine how the current leadership's agenda for "ecological civilization" could successfully transform marine resource management in the coming years. We show how China, like many other countries, has experienced a decline in the average trophic level of its capture fisheries during the past few decades, and how its policy design, implementation, and enforcement have influenced the status of its wild fish stocks. To reverse the trend in declining fish stocks, the government is introducing a series of new programs for sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, with greater traceability and accountability in marine resource management and area controls on coastal development. As impressive as these new plans are on paper, we conclude that serious institutional reforms will be needed to achieve a true paradigm shift in marine fisheries management in China. In particular, we recommend new institutions for science-based fisheries management, secure fishing access, policy consistency across provinces, educational programs for fisheries managers, and increasing public access to scientific data.

The recent series of shark bites on the north coast of New South Wales is a politician’s worst nightmare, as the government tries to balance public safety with protecting wildlife. In response NSW has stayed away from culling sharks and launched a new program, run through the Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries, to tag, track and monitor sharks. However, more research may not necessarily prove to be the answer because good research takes time and large resource allocations to deal with infrequent events – and politicians don’t have the luxury of time. Instead, we should look at programs that are already working, such as aerial patrols.

China is the world's largest producer, consumer, processor, and exporter of finfish and shellfish (defined here as “fish”), and its fish imports are steadily rising (1–3). China produces more than one-third of the global fish supply, largely from its ever-expanding aquaculture sector, as most of its domestic fisheries are overexploited (3–6). Aquaculture accounts for ∼72% of its reported domestic fish production, and China alone contributes >60% of global aquaculture volume and roughly half of global aquaculture value (1, 3).

Fisheries management is inherently difficult, and often 'wicked'. 'Wicked' problems are difficult to define because they are intermeshed with other complicated and larger problems and include multiple factors that are hard to quantify (Jentoft and Chuenpagdee 2009). Such problems have no clear single solution and require the engagement of stakeholders in an ongoing, cyclical and consultative manner.

Fisheries management is inherently difficult, and often 'wicked'. 'Wicked' problems are difficult to define because they are intermeshed with other complicated and larger problems and include multiple factors that are hard to quantify (Jentoft and Chuenpagdee 2009). Such problems have no clear single solution and require the engagement of stakeholders in an ongoing, cyclical and consultative manner.