Recovering overexploited species at Higher Level: This statement is Higher Level only. It shows how overfished species can recover when governments, fishers, consumers, markets and conservation groups cooperate, and how their different views can be brought together.
Practise this as you read
- List the stakeholders whose cooperation helps a stock recover.
- Explain how their differences can be resolved, with a real example.
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Recovery is a team effort: An overexploited species can recover, but only if everyone who catches, sells, buys or regulates it pulls in the same direction. Each of these stakeholders sees the problem differently.
The stakeholders and their perspectives
- Governments set and enforce the rules, and care about jobs, food and votes.
- The fishing industry (fishers and companies) needs income now, and fish in the future.
- Scientists estimate the stock and advise on a safe catch.
- Consumers choose which fish to buy; supermarkets and wholesale fish markets choose what to sell.
- NGOs (conservation groups) campaign, inform the public and run ecolabels.
- Local and indigenous people may depend on the fish for food and culture.
Remember it as: Rules, boats, science, shoppers, shops, campaigners: all six at the table.
| Stakeholder | What they want | What they can do |
|---|---|---|
| Government | Jobs, food, a healthy stock | Set quotas, bans and licences; enforce them |
| Fishers | Income now and next year | Keep to quotas; use better nets; report catches |
| Scientists | An accurate picture | Survey the stock; advise a safe catch |
| Consumers | Affordable, familiar fish | Choose labelled or different species |
| Supermarkets and fish markets | A steady supply, a good name | Stop buying overfished species |
| NGOs | Protect the species | Campaign; run labels and guides |
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The guide names four measures that help a stock recover. The Atlantic bluefin tuna shows several of them working together.
Measures that restore stocks
- Temporary fishing bans: close the fishery, a season or a spawning area until the stock recovers.
- Limits to fishing licences: fewer boats, or a fixed share of the catch for each boat.
- Prevent bycatch: nets that let young fish, turtles and dolphins escape.
- Inform consumers: ecolabels and guides show which fish are caught sustainably.
- A measure works only if every group accepts it and keeps to it.
Remember it as: Stop, cap, protect, inform.
2007
- Catches in the Mediterranean were far above the scientific advice, and the stock was close to collapse.
Governments
- The countries that fish for tuna agreed a 15-year recovery plan: lower quotas, shorter seasons and no spotter planes.
Young fish
- Tuna under 30 kg could no longer be caught, so young fish could grow up and breed.
Shoppers
- NGOs ran campaigns, and some restaurants and shops stopped selling bluefin.
2021
- The stock had grown so much that scientists moved the species from 'Endangered' to 'Least Concern'.
Cooperation between governments can be the first step. The Pacific halibut has been managed jointly for over 100 years.
Pacific halibut: how cooperation worked
- Two governments (USA and Canada) agreed to manage one shared stock together.
- Their scientists set a catch limit for each area every year.
- Fishers were given a fixed share of the catch, so racing for fish was pointless.
- With a share of a growing stock, fishers had a reason to protect it.
Remember it as: Share the fish, share the care.
1923
Heavy fishing had cut halibut numbers. The USA and Canada signed a treaty to manage the shared stock together: the first agreement of its kind.
Derby
Too many boats raced to catch the yearly limit. In some areas the season shrank to a few days, so boats went out even in storms and the work was very dangerous.
1995
Alaska gave each boat owner a fixed share of the catch, based on past catches. The race ended, and fresh halibut could be sold for most of the year.
Today
The joint commission's scientists still survey the stock and set each area's limit every year.
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Stakeholders often disagree: a ban that scientists want can cost fishers their income. Recovery plans succeed when these differences are resolved, not ignored.
How differences can be resolved
- Share the science: fishers help collect data, so they trust the advice.
- Co-management: fishers, scientists and governments decide the rules together.
- Compensation: pay fishers or buy back boats during a ban, or retrain them.
- Phase in cuts over several years so jobs are not lost all at once.
- Reward good practice: an ecolabel can earn a higher price and access to supermarkets.
Remember it as: Talk, share, pay, phase, reward.
North Sea cod: markets push
- In 2017 the cod won the MSC label.
- In 2019 the stock fell below a safe level and the label was taken away.
- To win it back, fishing groups promised new nets and closed spawning areas.
USA: the law pushes
- US law makes managers rebuild every overfished stock within a set time.
- Fishers sit on the councils that write the rules.
- By 2024, 51 US stocks had been rebuilt since 2000.
How this comes up: Paper 1 (May 2026, HL): a fact file on a fishery, with 'list two stakeholders whose cooperation could aid recovery' [1]: two correct groups for the one mark. Paper 2: explain or discuss recovery [4-9].
By 2007 the Atlantic bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea was close to collapse. By 2021 it was no longer listed as endangered.
Explain how cooperation between different stakeholders can help an overexploited species to recover.
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