Fisheries Management

and Ecology
Fisheries Management and Ecology, 2015, 22, 7177

Inland capture sheries: status and data issues

D. M. BARTLEY, G.J. DE GRAAF, J. VALBO-JRGENSEN &
G. MARMULLA
Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy

Abstract Lakes, reservoirs and wetlands cover a total area of about 7.8 million km2 and provide a rich environment
for inland capture sheries. Production from the worlds inland capture sheries has grown steadily to over 11.6
million tonnes in 2012, with almost 95% of the catches from developing countries. The sector is composed primarily
of small-scale shers and provides employment to approximately 61 million people, of which 50% are women. Inland
capture sheries yield is only 6.3% of the global reported sh production (capture sheries and aquaculture).
However, it is proposed that this is an underestimate and actual yield may be several times greater. The apparent low
proportion of sh provided by inland capture sheries globally does not reect adequately the importance of inland
capture sheries in todays society. A lack of accurate information renders analysis of existing data sets difcult and
makes decision-making problematic. Is the sector in serious trouble because of the multiple uses of and threats to
inland water ecosystems? Is the sector stable and increased production due only to better reporting? Or, is the sector
growing?
KEYWORDS:

food security, information, statistics, wetlands, yield.

Introduction
Inland capture sheries are a vital component in the livelihoods of people in many parts of the developed and
developing world. Globally, lakes, reservoirs and wetlands cover a total area of about 7.8 million km2 and
provide a rich environment for inland capture sheries
(De Graaf et al. 2015). According to statistics reported
to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the
United Nations, the sector has grown steadily over the
last several decades (Fig. 1). However, irresponsible
shing practices, habitat loss and degradation, water
abstraction, dam construction and pollution are thought
to have caused substantial declines and other changes to
inland shery resources.
FAO and others have commented on the poor state of
knowledge on inland shery resources and their ecosystems (Coates 2002; Allan et al. 2005; FAO 2010; World
Bank et al. 2010). The lack of accurate information has
led to a range of views on the actual status of many
resources. One extreme view is that the sector is in serious decline because of the multiple uses of and threats
to inland water ecosystems. The other extreme is that the
sector is, in fact, growing, that much of the production
and growth has gone unreported and that stock enhance-

ment has played a signicant role. It is important to note

that the quality of information will be different in different areas, and a view for one shery may not be applicable to another.
Given the importance of fresh water for humans and
the competing uses of inland waters, it is imperative that
governments and resource managers have accurate information on the production and value of inland capture
sheries to make responsible decisions. This study
examines the reported production from, and some of the
issues associated with, current information on the sector.
Status of inland capture sheries
Since FAO started collecting sheries statistics in 1950,
inland capture sheries have reportedly contributed
between 7 and 11.5% to annual capture sheries production globally. Inland capture sheries yielded about 4.2
million tonnes in 1950, about 5 million tonnes in 1980
and about 11.63 million tonnes in 2012 (FAO 2014)
with an average growth of between 2 and 3% per year.
This growth has occurred mainly in Asia and Africa,
and these continents regularly account for about 90% of
reported landings. The major producers of inland capture
sheries are developing countries with the exception of

Correspondence: Devin M. Bartley, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 00153 Rome,
Italy (e-mail: Devin.Bartley@fao.org)

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doi: 10.1111/fme.12104

71

D. M. BARTLEY ET AL.

14 000 000

1 600 000

12 000 000

Total

Africa

Americas

Asia

Europe

Other

Freshwater crustaceans

1 400 000

10 000 000

Production (t)

Production (t)

8 000 000
6 000 000
4 000 000

Freshwater molluscs

1 200 000

Tilapias and other cichlids

1 000 000

Carps, barbels and other cyprinids

800 000
600 000
400 000

2 000 000

200 000

Figure 1. Capture sheries production from inland waters for different

continents.

Table 1. Major producer countries for inland sheries, F = Food and

Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimated production
(FAO 2013)

Country
China
India
Myanmar
Bangladesh
Cambodia
Indonesia
Uganda
Tanzania
Nigeria
Brazil
Russian Federation
Thailand
Egypt
Congo, Democratic
Republic

2004
t

2012
t

2097167F
527290
454260
732067
250000
330879
371789
312040
182264
246101
178403
203200
282099
231772F

2298199
1460456
1246460
957095
449000
408820
408043F
316154
312009
272412F
262576
254645
240039
214000F

Change 20042012
t

%
201032
933166
792200
225028
199000
77941
36254
4114
129745
26311
84173
51445
42060
17772

9.6
177.0
174.4
30.7
79.6
23.6
9.8
1.3
71.2
10.7
47.2
25.3
14.9
7.7

the Russian Federation (Table 1). Almost 95% of the

worlds inland sh is caught in developing countries.1
Global inland capture sheries production was fairly
stable between 2000 and 2004 at about 8.6 million tonnes, but in the following 4 years, it showed an overall
increase of 1.6 million tonnes, reaching 11.63 million
tonnes in 2012 (Fig. 1). The recent increase in total production, despite increasing concern about environmental
conditions, was the consequence of the considerable
increase in catches reported to FAO by several major

Unless otherwise stated, statistical information comes from the FAO

capture production database which can be accessed at http://
www.fao.org/shery/statistics/en.

1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012

1950
1953
1956
1959
1962
1965
1968
1971
1974
1977
1980
1983
1986
1989
1992
1995
1998
2001
2004
2007
2010

72

Figure 2. Capture sheries production of main species groups in

inland waters.

inland shing countries (China, Bangladesh, India,

Myanmar, Uganda, Cambodia, Nigeria and the Russian
Federation).
The most important groups of inland capture sheries
reported to FAO are the cyprinids, tilapias, crustaceans
and molluscs (Fig. 2). The sector is composed primarily
of small-scale shers and provides employment to 61
million people, of which 50% are women (FAO 2010;
World Bank et al. 2010). The reported inland capture
sheries yield is only 6.3% of the global reported sh
production (capture sheries and aquaculture). The
apparent low proportion of sh provided by inland capture sheries globally can be misleading and most likely
does not reect adequately the importance of inland capture sheries in todays society.
Data concerns
FAO is the only international organisation responsible
for the collection and dissemination of global sheries
statistics. The data are reported by the countries to FAO;
if a country does not report, then FAO estimates the production based on previous reports and/or other available
sources. For example, despite African lakes and rivers
providing food to a large number of inhabitants and also
revenues from sh exported outside Africa, it was necessary for FAO to estimate the 2004 inland total catch for
half of the African countries where inland shing is
known to take place. Therefore, the global sheries statistics as reported by FAO are only as good as those of
the reporting countries.
Concerned about the persistent deciencies in collection systems worldwide for sheries data and information, FAO developed a strategy for improving
information on status and trends of capture sheries
(STF) (FAO 2003). The STFs overall objective is to
provide a framework for the improvement of knowledge
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STATUS AND DATA ISSUES: INLAND FISHERIES

and understanding of shery status and trends as a basis

for sheries policymaking and sustainable management.
From the reported data, there is an apparent increasing
trend in the production from global and regional inland
capture sheries during the period 19502012. The signicance of current reported trends in catches is difcult
to assess. In most countries, it is assumed that actual
catches have been at a maximum level for some time.
There is no doubt that inland capture sheries production has been, and perhaps still is, under-reported for
some areas; de Graaf and Ofori-Danson (1997) estimated
the total catch of Lake Volta (Ghana) in 1996 at
150 000200 000 t, while only 75 000 t were reported
ofcially. Other unpublished data indicated that
251 000 t were landed for the lake in 2000, while again
only 65 000 t were reported. Lymer and Funge-Smith
(2009) estimated that Thai inland capture sheries catch
is about ve times that reported in ofcial statistics. The
ofcial reported inland production of the Mekong river
countries was about 1.6 million tonnes, while the
Mekong River Commission estimated the production of
the Lower Mekong River Basin alone at 2.6 million tonnes (Hortle 2007). The Big Numbers study carried out
by the WorldBank (2010) estimated total inland capture
sheries production at 13 million tonnes, but did not
include subsistence shing, thus actual production could
be substantially higher.
However, there are also cases where reporting seems
to have been overestimated. Some countries have shown
a tendency to report continuously increasing inland
catches. For example, in the last decade, Bangladesh and
Myanmar have increased their total inland water catches
by about 100 and 450%, respectively. As increases of
such magnitude for inland water catches seem questionable, they could be explained by overestimations or by
better coverage of the national data collection system.
Improved reporting seems to have been at least partially responsible for some of the recent increases. After
8 years of no reporting, Zambia resumed reporting catch
statistics to FAO in 2009. Data submitted included
catches for 19992008 by shery area (lake, reservoir,
river or swamp) with annual total catch ranging between
60 000 and 80 000 t. Similarly, according to information
provided by the Cambodian authorities, the introduction
of a new methodology to estimate production of semicommercial and subsistence sheries led to a 1999
inland catch report of 231 000 t that was 3 times that
reported for the previous year (75 700 t). Since then,
total catches have uctuated and reached a maximum of
422 000 t in 2006, but in the following years, catches
declined until 2011/2012 when they surpassed the
440 000 t per annum. Indias reported average of
800 000 t for 20002009 was 50% higher than it was
2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

for the previous decade and then increased to 1.3 million

tonnes post-2010; the reason for the increase is unclear.
Total inland water catches reported by Myanmar
remained stable between 100 000 and 160 000 t for
44 years (19561999). Since 2000, reported production
by Myanmar has been growing at an average growth rate
of 20% per year, reaching 815 000 t in 2008 and 1.24
million tonnes in 2012. Nigeria is another country in
which inland catches have been growing very rapidly in
recent years: less than 100 000 t was reported in 1997
while over 312 000 t was reported in 2012. There is no
information available about the causes of such increase.
According to Ugandas Fisheries Department, a large
increase in 2004 was due to improved coverage of the
data collection system and the inclusion of illegal catch
estimates, whereas an increase in 2007 production
resulted from inclusion of emerging sheries for new
species. However, recent catches of Nile perch in Lake
Victoria reported by Uganda were calculated using a
xed percentage on total catch, resulting in catches
greater that those estimated by the Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization.
According to the WorldBank (2010), sh consumption
in the Vietnamese area of the Mekong Delta indicated
that Vietnams inland capture production is more than
ve times the 140 900 t reported in 2008 and still 3.5
times higher than catches (203 000 t) reported in 2012.
In 2002, Coates reviewed the inland capture shery data
collection systems and ofcial data reported for eight
countries in South-East Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao
PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and
Vietnam). He found that inland capture sheries were
seriously under-reported in all of the countries examined
and suggested that catches for all countries combined
were underestimated by between 2.5 and 3.6 times.
Coates used 1999 data as the most updated inland water
catches available from the FAO database, and in that
year, the eight countries combined totalled 1.274 million
tonnes. Fourteen years later, total catch by the same
countries reached 2.750 million tonnes, only 115% more
than the 1999 datum. This growth was mostly due to the
great increases reported by Myanmar and Cambodia
already described above.
Analyses of reported catches in South-East Asia indicated that large year-to-year increases in reported catches
are a relatively common occurrence and are due to deliberate revision of statistics, rather than a sudden change
in the status of a shery (Lymer & Funge-Smith 2009).
Due to the high contribution of Asian countries to global
inland capture sheries landings, improved reporting at
the national level can signicantly inuence the global
trends. The implications of this are that for the world as
a whole, the baseline is being readjusted, while in some

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D. M. BARTLEY ET AL.

countries, a possible decline in one or more sheries is

being masked (in the reporting to FAO) by the aggregation of catches from several sheries.
FAO inland shery statistics include information on
over 300 taxa. However, in relation to biodiversity in
global inland waters, this is an extremely small proportion of the potential species being shed. The information on what is being caught is very poor. Additionally,
there is a disturbing trend in reporting inland catches
the percentage of catches not identied or not identied
to species is increasing. In 2012, the category of NEI
(not elsewhere included) accounted for 8.8 million tonnes and the largest share of reported inland catch. Often
catch is only identied at the level of genus, family, or
even phylum (e.g. freshwater molluscs nei).
The level of unidentied catches reported at the global
level has always been very high. It had decreased below
50% of the total during the 1990s, but since the early
2000s, due to the massive catch increases by some Asian
countries mainly reported as unidentied catches, the
share of freshwater shes nei in the FAO database
exceeded again half of the total inland water catches
(54.4% for 2012).
In recent years, several countries have made efforts to
improve the quality of their inland catch statistics and
report a ner breakdown of species composition. In the
last 10 years, the increase of inland water species with
statistics in the FAO database was almost double that of
marine species (Table 2). In 2012, the percentage of
inland capture sheries harvest identied to species compared with total species reported rose to 23.8%.
Stock enhancement special concerns for analysing
the yield of inland capture sheries

Stocking and culture-based sheries present special concerns with regard to reporting and recording shery
information and in assessing the state of shery
resources and ecosystems. The existing FAO data struc-

tures for capture and aquaculture have not yet incorporated a separate category to accommodate the capture
shery production resulting from stocking and/or culture-based sheries. It is usually difcult to determine
the contribution stocking makes to shery production.
Thus, when hatchery releases are a signicant driver of a
shery, accurate assessment of the ecosystem and its
ability to provide all ecosystem services necessary to
support inland capture sheries and the relative contribution of aquaculture to production is difcult.
Accurate assessment of the value of the subsectors of
aquaculture and inland capture sheries is further complicated when there are inconsistencies in how production from stocking programmes is recorded. According
to ofcially reported data, aquaculture production of Chinese carps in China was close to 11.3 million tonnes in
2012. China does not report inland capture shery data
to species and reported 2.3 million tonnes total inland
capture shery production and, undoubtedly, much of
this is from Chinese carps. Chinese carps require long
stretches of owing river for their eggs to mature, and
much of this type of habitat has been lost in China and
elsewhere. In China, inland water bodies are stocked
with early life-history stages of Chinese carps from
hatcheries; the majority of this production is recorded as
aquaculture even though a portion of this production
probably is from capture sheries.
A contrary situation exists in Mexican common carp
sheries. About 21 000 t were landed in 2008; aquaculture production was around 6000 tonnes and by 2012
aquaculture only contributed about 1200 t of the
23 300 t landed. However, this reects an adjustment in
the way Mexican carp production is recorded. Culturebased sheries, which amounted to over 20 000 in the
20032006 period, were previously recorded as aquaculture and now are partially recorded as capture sheries
(Fig. 3). Several other culture-based sheries in Mexico,
35 000

Capture

Aquaculture

30 000

Sector

1998 (n)

2008 (n)

Inland capture sheries

Marine capture sheries
Total number of species items
Share of inland water species
items in total number of
species items

108
1007
1115
9.7%

164
1301
1465
11.2%

Change
19982008
(%)
51.9
29.2
31.4

25 000
20 000
15 000
10 000
5000
0

1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012

Table 2. Number of sh, crustaceans and molluscs species items (n)

for which species-specic information exists in the FAO capture database (http://www.fao.org/shery/statistics/en)

Production (t)

74

Figure 3. Shift in capture sheries and aquaculture production in

Mexico.

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STATUS AND DATA ISSUES: INLAND FISHERIES

for example Mesa silverside, Chirostoma spp. and black

bass, Micropterus spp., that were previously recorded as
aquaculture are now at least partially being recorded by
FAO as capture sheries. Thus, some of the changes in
production for sheries or aquaculture reect how information is reported and not the state of the resource or of
the environment.
Floodplains have been modied or developed such
that natural reproduction of valuable native species that
rely on the ood cycle is reduced; stocking may provide continued production of higher value species.
There is a large stocking programme of oodplains in
Myanmar where, in addition to hatchery-released species of carp, naturally recruited species make up a considerable share of the catch. In the concession sheries
on oodplains of Myanmar, there are obligations on
the concessionaire to stock sh into the system for
which they are licensed (De Silva & Funge-Smith
2005). Stocking along with cooperation with other
users of Myanmars inland waters increased shery production by 300% (De Silva & Funge-Smith 2005). The
effectiveness of stocking can vary according to the type
of water body stocked and size of the sh stocked, but
stocking has been considered the driver of the signicant increase in inland capture sheries productivity in
Myanmar.
Rice elds are another modied inland aquatic habitat
suitable for enhancement under certain conditions.
Stocking of rice paddies has been promoted as a means
to increase production. However, this practice is only
conducted in about 1% of the worlds rice paddies due
to problems with managing water for both rice and sh,
and low return on investment as the sh stocked are
often of low value. In Zhejiang Province, China, a
highly valued red strain of common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.) is stocked in approximately 80% of the rice
elds. China is reported to have harvested 1.2 million
tonnes of food sh in 2008 from about 1.5 million ha of
paddy eld stocked with sh (FAO unpublished information). These sh command a high market value and
are sold locally and exported. Other high value species
and their early life-history stages are being stocked in
rice elds in China, Vietnam and Bangladesh (FAO
2008). Production in these systems, however, is more
likely to be reported as aquaculture.
Recreational sheries

In the last century, the number of commercial shers has

decreased considerably, and recreational shing has
become a major activity in the inland waters of developed countries (Arlinghaus et al. 2015, this volume).
This move away from food sheries towards recreational
2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

sheries has been accompanied by a shift in economics

and interests; recreational interests have become a major
driver of habitat and water use. In countries such as Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Romania,
Turkey and Ukraine, recreational shing is often not just
a hobby activity. Many people go shing after work and
on weekends to help their households meet their food
security needs (FAO 2010).
Since 1995, countries have also been requested to
report their recreational catches to FAO, but only a limited number of countries, mostly European, collect data
on this sector. Estimates on the production and value of
sector indicate that it is often more valuable and more
productive than the commercial sector. Indicative examples include Finland, where 90% of the inland catch is
taken by recreational shers (Government of Finland
unpublished data); the Laurentian Great Lakes, where
commercial sheries on native lake trout and lake white
sh were valued at $30 million per year, whereas recreational sheries were valued at $1.7 billion per year; and
Europe, where the value of the recreational sector is estimated at $33 billion (FAO 2010).
Conclusionwhat is reasonable?
Clearly, there are challenges in providing accurate information on many of the worlds inland capture sheries.
Reasons for the poor state of knowledge on inland capture sheries are related to the following (Allan et al.
2005; FAO 2010; World Bank et al. 2010):
the artisanal and small-scale nature of many sheries
about 60 million people are involved in small-scale sheries;
the lack of infrastructure and management capacity in
many countries where inland capture sheries are important;
many inland shers also farm and engage in other
livelihood activities;
with a few notable exceptions, most inland capture
sheries harvest sh that are of lower value than many
marine sh;
the highly seasonal nature of many inland capture sheries;
much of the harvest is for subsistence or traded locally
and never formally enters the economy by commercial
trade;
other competing uses of fresh water have perceived
higher value and therefore have a higher priority in
water management and development plans;
the remote and widely dispersed shing and landing
sites hamper collection of shery statistics, as such governments question whether it is cost-effective to try to
collect accurate information on inland capture sheries.

75

76

D. M. BARTLEY ET AL.

With such challenges, is it reasonable to expect species-specic data to be collected on each shery? In certain circumstances the increased expense could be
justied (e.g. protection of endangered species and access
to certain markets, such as through ecolabelling). However, as indicated here, with such poor knowledge of the
production from the sector more immediate needs may be
to understand the role inland capture sheries play in
societies to make informed management and development decisions (see De Graaf et al. 2015).
With regards to understanding the role of stocking
programmes, FAO requests member states to identify
whether hatchery-produced juveniles are stocked in the
wild and be considered shery production, or stocked
into contained areas and be considered aquaculture production. This information is usually not provided or
provided inconsistently and is therefore not useful in
assessing trends. More rigour is required from member
states to provide this information to understand interactions between sheries and aquaculture and to assess the
state of the ecosystem in regard to providing the full
suite of ecosystem services necessary for sustainable
shery production.
There have been claims that global catches in inland
waters could be much higher than ofcially reported to
FAO (WorldBank 2010; Welcomme 2011; De Graaf
et al. 2015). Using a model calculation, Welcomme
(2011) estimated that more than 93 million tonnes could
be produced just from the worlds lakes; rice elds,
oodplains, streams, rivers and other wetlands were not
considered. Welcomme (2011) stated that this estimate
of potential production is extremely crude and undoubtedly excessive and that the model was based on tropical
production rates which are higher than production rates
in temperate waters. Although 93 million tonnes is certainly an overestimate, the actual global production
could be much higher than what is currently reported.
The Big Numbers Project (WorldBank 2010) estimated a
gure of 13 million tonnes based on several case studies. The Big Numbers Project did not consider subsistence sheries and also noted that ratios of ofcially
reported statistics to results from their study were as
high as 1:5.
Is it reasonable to expect that inland shery production could be ve times the quantity currently reported,
or around 5060 million tonnes (5 times the 11.6 million
tonnes reported to FAO in 2012)? What if the Big Numbers Project would have included subsistence sheries?
Their estimate could have doubled from 13 million tonnes to 26 million tonnes (G. de Graaf, personal communication). Is 26 million tonnes a reasonable estimate?
The FAO statistics group states that China, the Americas and Europe provide reasonably accurate data on

inland capture sheries. These countries make up 30%

of the reported global production or about 3 million tonnes. Thus, to reach 50 million tonnes global total, production from other areas would need to be extremely
high (about 56 times higher than the 8 million tonnes
currently reported); reaching a 26 million tonnes total
would require their production to be about 3 times
higher than reported. Many estimates of the level of
underestimation of inland capture sheries production
were made several years ago (e.g. Coates 2002). Much
of the overall underestimation reported for south-east
Asian countries has been accounted for through improvements in data reporting by some countries (e.g. Cambodia) or partially compensated for by enormous increases
in inland water catches reported by other countries (e.g.
Myanmar).
While the true status of inland capture sheries is
still unclear in many areas, it is certain that inland
capture sheries play a valuable role in many rural
areas. Over 60 million people, 50% of which are
women and the majority of which are in developing
countries, depend on inland capture sheries for their
livelihood (FAO 2010; WorldBank 2010). These sheries provide a valuable and accessible source of high
quality protein, livelihood and food security for rural
populations when other food production sectors falter
or fail (So-Jung et al. 2014). The FAO strategy for
improving information on status and trends of capture
sheries (FAO 2003) is a good initiative. Efforts are
underway to improve the status of information on
these important sheries (WorldBank 2010), and new
approaches are being used (Hortle 2007; Beard et al.
2011; De Graaf et al. 2015). With growing human
population pressures on the worlds freshwater
resources, it will be essential to increase the level of
understanding of the worlds inland capture sheries to
make informed decisions on how freshwater resources
are developed and managed.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge Mr Luca Garibaldi
of the Statistics and Information Service in FAO for discussions on inland capture sheries data and reporting.
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