Panel 1
Camilla Antonini, Saša Raicevich
Over the period considered (2007–2023), the status of assessed fish stocks has shown an overall improvement: the proportion of nationally managed stocks subject to overfishing has declined, reaching its lowest level (44.4%) in 2023. Although fishing mortality remains critical in several cases, it has exhibited a downward trend in recent years, progressively approaching levels compatible with the long-term sustainable exploitation of resources under average environmental conditions.
The indicator, based on analytically assessed stocks validated at the international level, reflects the overall dynamics of the exploitation status of commercially fished stocks, highlighting the gradual improvement of exploited marine resources. It is also associated with the percentage coverage of landings for which stock assessment data are available, with analyses conducted at both the national and subregional levels according to the geographic subdivision established by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.
The indicator describes the trend in the percentage and number of fish stocks that are overexploited, meaning those subject to fishing mortality higher than the level corresponding to the Maximum Sustainable Yield (FMSY or its proxies, such as F0.1, EMSY = 0.4, or other parameters derived from stock assessments). This parameter is estimated on a case-by-case basis using biological and catch data for each species through a modelling approach.
Since the indicator is based on analytical stock assessments and considers only stocks whose evaluation has been validated at the international level, it relies on standardized procedures that allow the status of a stock to be determined by comparing current fishing mortality (Fcurr, or its proxies) with that required to achieve sustainable resource exploitation (FMSY or its proxies).
Only fish stocks assessed through analytical stock assessment procedures, whose results are internationally validated by EU technical bodies (the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries — STECF) and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), are included in the indicator. In general, stock assessments refer to years prior to the year of assessment; therefore, the stock status is conventionally attributed to the year preceding the consolidation of the available international assessment. Similarly, the percentage of national landings covered by stock assessments is referred to the same year, that is, the year preceding the completion of the stock assessment analyses.
A summary evaluation is provided at the national level and for the subregions defined under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive 2008/56/EC: Western Mediterranean, Ionian and Central Mediterranean, and Adriatic. The indicator integrates both absolute data (number of overexploited stocks) and the relative percentage with respect to the total number of assessed stocks. Some of the fish stocks considered are shared among several countries, both EU Member States and non-EU countries. The type of stocks assessed also varies over time, although the integration of data over three-year time windows increases the stability of the stock pool considered. This information is provided to ensure a correct interpretation of the indicator.
To show the overall trend in the exploitation status of fish stocks subject to commercial fishing.
At both the international and European levels, there are specific objectives for fisheries sustainability. Progress toward these goals can be tracked using this indicator as a proxy to represent the sustainability of exploitation across the harvested resources.
Key international and EU references include:
- Directive 2008/56/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 establishing a framework for community action in the field of marine environmental policy (Marine Strategy Framework Directive). Official Journal of the European Union, L 164, 25.06.2008.
According to this Directive and the associated methodological standards (Commission Decision (EU) 2017/848 of 17 May 2017), within Descriptor 3 (selective extraction of species), the following sustainability criteria are applied:- Criterion D3C1 — Primary: The fishing mortality rate of commercially exploited populations is equal to or below the level capable of producing the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).
- Criterion D3C2 — Primary: The spawning stock biomass of commercially exploited populations is above the level capable of producing the MSY.
- Regulation (EU) No. 1380/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2013 on the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Official Journal of the European Union, L 354, 28.12.2013.
According to Article 2 (Objectives), paragraph 2:
“The CFP shall apply the precautionary approach to fisheries management, and shall aim to ensure that exploitation of living marine biological resources restores and maintains populations of harvested species above levels capable of producing the maximum sustainable yield. To achieve this objective, the MSY exploitation rate shall be reached by 2015 where possible, and progressively by 2020 at the latest for all stocks.” - Aichi Target 6 on Biodiversity (https://www.cbd.int/article/Assessing-Progress-towards-Aichi-Biodiversity-Target-6-on-Sustainable-Marine-Fisheries):
By 2020, all fish, invertebrate, and aquatic plant stocks are managed and harvested sustainably and legally, applying an ecosystem-based approach, such that overfishing is avoided, recovery plans and measures are implemented for depleted species, and fishing has no significant adverse impacts on threatened species and vulnerable ecosystems.
UN Sustainable Development Goal Target 14.4 requires that, by 2020, overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and destructive fishing practices be effectively regulated and eliminated through science-based management measures, to restore fish stocks to levels that can produce the Maximum Sustainable Yield according to their biological characteristics (http://www.fao.org/sustainable-development-goals/indicators/14.4.1/en/).
The associated indicator — “Proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels” — measures the sustainability of global fisheries based on stock abundance. A stock whose biomass is at or above the level capable of producing the MSY is classified as biologically sustainable.
Panel 2
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – 2017 Mediterranean Stock Assessments - Part I (STECF-17-15). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2017, ISBN 978-92-79-67487-7, doi:10.2760/897559, JRC109350
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) - 2017 Mediterranean Stock Assessments - Part 2 (STECF-17-15); Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, ISBN 978-92-79-67494-5, doi:10.2760/90316, JRC111820
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – 56th Plenary Meeting Report (PLEN-17-03); Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg; ISBN 978-92-79-77297-9, doi:10.2760/605712, JRC109344
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – 57th Plenary Meeting Report (PLEN-18-01), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-79-85804-8, doi:10.2760/088784, JRC111800
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – 2018 Mediterranean Stock Assessments - Part 1 (STECF-18-12). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-79-79395-0, doi:10.2760/838965, JRC114779
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – 2018 Mediterranean Stock Assessments - Part 2 (STECF-18-16). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2018, ISBN 978-92-79-79399-8, doi:10.2760/598716, JRC114787
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Stock Assessments: demersal stocks in the western Mediterranean Sea (STECF-19-10). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-11288-4, doi:10.2760/5399, JRC119055
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – 2019 Stock Assessments part 2: European fisheries for demersal species in the Adriatic Sea (STECF-19-16). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2019, ISBN 978-92-76-14558-5, doi:10.2760/95875, JRC119057
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Stock Assessments: demersal stocks in the western Mediterranean Sea (STECF-20-09). EUR 28359 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020, ISBN 978-92-76-27165-9, doi:10.2760/286667, JRC122993
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Stock Assessments in the Mediterranean Sea - Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas (STECF-20-15). EUR 28359 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2020, ISBN 978-92-76-27168-0, doi:10.2760/877405, JRC122994
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Stock
assessments in the Mediterranean Sea 2021 – Adriatic and Ionian Seas (STECF-21-15). EUR 28359
EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, ISBN 978-92-76-46195-1,
doi:10.2760/59806, JRC127766.
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Stock
Assessments: demersal stocks in the western Mediterranean Sea (STECF-21-11). Publications
Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, EUR 28359 EN, ISBN 978-92-76-46116-6,
doi:10.2760/046729, JRC127744
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) –
Methods for supporting stock assessment in the Mediterranean (STECF-21-02). Publications Office
of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2021, EUR 28359 EN, ISBN 978-92-76-40594-8,
doi:10.2760/457201, JRC126125.
Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) Quality checking of MED & BS data and reference points (STECF-22-03). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/465703, JRC130288.
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Stock Assessments: demersal stocks in Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas and straits of Sicily (STECF-22-16). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/25344, JRC132157.
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) – Stock Assessments: demersal stocks in Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas and straits of Sicily (STECF-22-16). Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/25344, JRC132157.
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) - Stock assessments in the Western Mediterranean Sea (STECF 23-09), Mannini, A., Ligas, A. And Pierucci, A. Editor(s), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023, doi:10.2760/995295, JRC135661.
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) - Stock Assessments in the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas and Strait of Sicily (STECF-23-12), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2023.
Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) - Methodologies for Mediterranean stock assessments and the estimation of reference points (STECF- 24-02), Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2024.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Seventh Meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Western Mediterranean (SRC-WM), Rome, Italy, 21–24 May 2024. P. 116.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Seventh Meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Adriatic Sea (SRC-AS), Podgorica, Montenegro, 28–31 May 2024. P. 131.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Seventh Meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Adriatic Sea (SRC-AS), Rome, Italy (hybrid), 13–15 May 2025. P. 165.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Seventh Meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Central Mediterranean (SRC-CM), Palermo, Italy (hybrid), 8–10 April 2025. P. 97.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Seventh Meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean (SRC-EM), Rome, Italy, 23–25 April 2025. P. 93.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Seventh Meeting of the Subregional Committee for the Western Mediterranean (SRC-WM), Malaga, Spain, 27–29 May 2025. P. 90.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Working Group on Stock Assessment in Demersal Species (WGSAD) Benchmark assessment for Norway lobster in the Adriatic Sea, Split, Croatia, 14–17 April 2025. P. 10.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) - Report of Working Group on Stock Assessment of Small Pelagic Species (WGSASP) Session on small pelagic species in the Adriatic Sea (GSAs 17–18), Online, 5–9 May 2025. P. 78.
European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for
Fisheries (STECF) – Ad-hoc hake assessment (STECF-25-06).
European Commission: Joint Research Centre, Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries Methodologies for Mediterranean Stock Assessments (STECF-25-01). Jardim, E., Mantopoulou Palouka, D., and Gras, M. Editors, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 2025, https://data. europa. eu/doi/10.2760/1568886, JRC142274.
The indicator is influenced by the number of assessed stocks.
To enhance temporal and spatial comparability, a stable set of fish stocks should be defined for inclusion in the indicator, in order to assess progress toward sustainable resource exploitation.
This selection should follow harmonized and comparable criteria across the Mediterranean. This requires: annual (or biennial) assessment of a consistent number of stocks and analytical efforts sufficient to track fishing pressure and stock status for a larger proportion of national landings.
At the Mediterranean scale, a coordinated approach should also be established for the selection of reference points, the methodological approaches used to estimate them, and the methods to define uncertainty associated with these estimates.
Data quality assessment
EUROSTAT (Statistical Office of the European Communities)
GFCM (General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean)
STECF (Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries)
Uses internationally validated stock assessment data from STECF and GFCM (annual reports):
https://stecf.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports
http://www.fao.org/gfcm/activities/fisheries/stock-assessment/en/
Uses landing data for fish species from STECF and EUROSTAT (via the EUMOFA platform):
National
2007-2023
Indicator assessment
For each year, the indicator considers the status of stocks whose assessments have been finalized and validated by STECF and/or GFCM. Stock status is evaluated based on the ratio between the most recent fishing mortality estimates (Fcurr) and the corresponding reference values (FMSY).
The methodology was updated compared with previous years, which used the three-year average (current year and two preceding years) of the Fcurr/FMSY ratio. The current approach aligns with that applied by GFCM for the Mediterranean scale in its biennial report “The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries 2020” (GFCM, 2020), allowing direct comparison between national and regional estimates.
Fcurr values are compared with the corresponding reference value of fishing mortality at MSY (FMSY). Typically, F0.1 derived from Yield-per-Recruit analyses is used as a proxy for FMSY. Stocks with Fcurr > F0.1 are considered overexploited, meaning they are subject to fishing pressure exceeding that which allows achievement of MSY.
For small pelagic stocks (sardine and anchovy), where direct F estimates are not available, the exploitation rate (E = F/Z) is used. The reference threshold (EMSY) for defining overexploitation is set at 0.4, following Patterson (1992), unless other justified reference values are provided in technical documentation. Stocks with E > EMSY are classified as overexploited.
Since some stock assessments cover multiple FAO Geographical Sub-Areas (GSAs) — sometimes including non-EU or multi-subregion GSAs — the overall exploitation value for the combined GSAs is attributed to each national GSA considered, as if they were separate stocks.
The analysis excludes large pelagic stocks (bluefin tuna and swordfish), which are assessed at international scale by ICCAT (Atlantic–Mediterranean and Mediterranean, respectively).
In 2023, 12 of the 27 assessed fish stocks (44.4%) were classified as overexploited due to fishing pressure.
At the same time, the highest percentage of national landings covered by stock assessments was recorded (64.2% in 2021, 62% in 2022, and 70.8% in 2023). This increase, compared with previous years when coverage averaged around 30–35%, is mainly due to the availability of assessments for small pelagic stocks (Engraulis encrasicolus and Sardina pilchardus), which contribute significantly to total catches at both national and Mediterranean levels.
Between 2007 and 2023, the status of assessed fish stocks has improved: the proportion of overexploited stocks declined over time, reaching a minimum (44.4%) in the most recent year.
This downward trend was already evident in the 2020–2022 assessment period. Most of the assessed stocks were overexploited, increasing from 77.8% in 2007 to 96.4% in 2014, indicating unsustainable fishing for the vast majority of stocks (Figure 1). Subsequently, a reduction occurred, with 58.1% in 2021, 62.1% in 2022, and 44.4% in 2023. This improvement is likely linked to both the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the fishing sector and the adoption of stricter management measures.
The number of assessed stocks also increased from 9 in 2007 to 35 in 2014. Between 2015 and 2023, the number ranged from 18 to 31, with 27 fish stocks assessed in 2023.
Data
Table 1: National trends in overexploited stocks
ISPRA analysis based on stock assessment data validated internationally by STECF and GFCM
*Estimate based on total catches validated internationally by STECF (for the period 2007-2018) and those published on the Eumofa platform (for the period 2019-2023) as reference values. For the period 2019-2023, the estimate of catches per stock is based on 2018 as the reference value.
Updated in December 2024
Table 2: Trends in overexploited stocks broken down by MSFD subregion
ISPRA analysis based on stock assessment data validated at international level by STECF and GFCM
updated in December 2024
Table 3: Trend in the ratio between fishing mortality (F curr) and Maximum Sustainable Yield mortality (Fmsy) for fish stocks assessed using analytical stock assessment
ISPRA analysis based on stock assessment data validated at international level by STECF and GFCM
*Stocks shared with other countries for which the assessment was shared with neighboring GSAs. **In the case of small pelagic stocks (sardines and anchovies), the exploitation rate (E = F/Z) is considered. The reference limit (EMSY) for defining whether a stock is overexploited is set at 0.4, as suggested by Patterson (1992). If E>EMSY, stocks are classified as overexploited. ***Stock assessed for the NW area of GSA 17 (17NW ITA)
In addition to the species considered, the code of the GSA in which the assessment was conducted, the relevant MSFD subregion, and the taxonomic group are indicated. Values greater than 1 in the last column indicate overexploitation. In the case of assessments for multiple GSAs, the aggregate value is reported. The reference year in the table is the year prior to the completion and validation of the stock assessments. Updated in December 2024.
Figure 1: Number of stocks assessed and percentage of stocks overexploited
ISPRA analysis based on stock assessment data validated internationally by STECF and GFCM
Figure 2: Percentage of national landings corresponding to assessed stocks
ISPRA analysis based on internationally validated stock assessment data
The percentage of national landings covered by stock assessments averages around 35%, with annual variations depending on the availability of stock evaluations (Figure 2, Table 1). In the last three years (2021–2023), this share increased markedly, averaging about 66% of total national landings.
The indicator trend, expressed in both absolute and percentage terms, is influenced by the number and type of stocks included in the assessments each year (Figures 1 and 2). Nevertheless, analyses show a clear reduction in exploitation levels, while the robustness of estimates has progressively increased due to strengthened analytical efforts and the availability of stock assessments.
As shown in Table 2, in 2023 the number of assessed fish stocks was 11 in the Adriatic, 9 in the Ionian and Central Mediterranean, and 7 in the Western Mediterranean.
Table 3 lists the fish stocks assessed since 2007 for which fishing mortality estimates and reference points are available. For each stock, the ratio between current exploitation rate and the reference value (Fcurr/FMSY) or its proxies is provided: values greater than 1 indicate unsustainable exploitation, incompatible with achieving the Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).