A study led by researchers Daniel Pauly and Dirk Zeller of the University of British Columbia’s Sea Around Us project has revealed that the data on the amount of fish caught, received by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from several nations, is not quite accurate.

According to FAO’s data, global fish catches reached its maximum of 86 million metric tons in 1996 and thereafter decreased slightly. The actual data suggests that 130 million metric tons of fish was caught in 1996 and it has been declining at an annual rate of 1.2 million metric tons since then.

The actual data has been gathered by combined efforts of over 50 global institutions. The two lead researchers revealed that FAO records all ’no data’ sectors as zero, which is inaccurate.

Secondly, several countries fail to report recreational fishing, discarded bycatch and illegal fishing, thereby adding to underestimation.

The official data of FAO was investigated to understand similar areas of misrepresentation for further analysis by literature and local experts, along with organizations, to put together the precise data. This catch reconstruction method used by the researchers led them to compile data regarding all catches during 1950-2010. Global catches in 2010 were around 77 million metric tons according to FAO, while the reconstructed data suggests the figure to be nearly 106 million metric tons.

According to Pauly, excessive fishing and decrease in global fish level is posing a danger towards food security of cultures which are dependent to fish. The researchers believe that fishing is much more unsustainable than ascertained by the scientists earlier. The reason given by Pauly for sharp decline in fishing is overfishing and exhaustion of one breed after another, mainly by the industrial fishing sector.

The researchers recommend that large-scale and small-scale fisheries’ data must be separately compiled by FAO. They draw attention towards the necessity of replenishing the fish stock by implementing fishing quotas to curb overfishing and allowing fish to restock themselves.