Percentage of overexploited fishing stocks in the Mediterranean and Black Sea fell below 60 percent for the first time, continuing a decade-long downward trend highlighted by an official report released today.
While overfishing remains a concern, the Status of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries 2023, known as SoMFi 2023, notes that the figure dropped by 15 percent in the last year. This aligns with a sustained decline in fishing pressure, which has fallen by 31 percent since 2012.
The report is the flagship publication of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and its General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean. This year SoMFi 2023 also includes data on the regional seafood farming sector for the first time.
fountain of wealth
The GFCM, the regional fisheries management body, oversees wild catches along with marine and brackish aquaculture in the region. SoMFi 2023 shows that fishing and aquaculture together produced nearly 2 million tonnes of seafood in 2021, underscoring their equal economic importance. The activity generates over 20 billion dollars in revenue and supports about 700,000 jobs across the value chain.
This special issue reinforces how vital this sector is for livelihoods, food security, and nutrition in the region.
Photograph credits note a fishing boat at sea.
Officials emphasize that high‑quality data collection and analysis across countries are what make SoMFi a critical tool for guiding decisions and monitoring progress toward sustainable fisheries and aquaculture. Sea, as a term used in the report, reflects the shared focus on healthy oceans and resilient communities.
Fishing pressure remains too great
Even with notable reductions in exploitation, the overall fishing pressure in the Mediterranean and Black Seas remains twice the sustainable level. Still, CGPM continues to expand monitoring, management plans, and spatial measures, which have yielded positive results for key commercial species. European hake stocks in the Mediterranean, turbot in the Black Sea, and flounder in the Adriatic Sea have shown reduced overfishing and signs of biomass recovery in several cases.
Some populations under management have seen above-average reductions in fishing pressure. Notably, Adriatic sole has achieved a 77 percent reduction toward sustainable exploitation, while Black Sea turbot shows a 73 percent drop.
In line with the 2030 Strategy and the FAO Blue Transformation vision, CGPM has ten multi‑annual management plans in place involving roughly 7,000 ships. The approach also protects sensitive species and vulnerable marine ecosystems, including deep‑sea corals and essential fish habitats such as spawning and breeding grounds. Ten restricted fishing zones cover more than 1.75 million square kilometers in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
The regional catch is dominated by small pelagic species, especially European anchovy and sardine. In the Mediterranean, about 90 percent of the catch comes from 55 species, while in the Black Sea a similar concentration involves a handful of species.
Global capture fisheries production has remained stable in recent years, with Turkey, Italy, and Tunisia listed as the top national contributors. Small-scale vessels form the backbone of the fleet, representing the majority of employment and contributing a meaningful share of total revenue despite accounting for roughly 15 percent of catches.
Aquaculture is growing rapidly
SoMFi shows a robust expansion of seafood farming in the region. Over the past decade, marine and brackish aquaculture production nearly doubled, rising 91.3 percent, while revenue grew by about 74.5 percent. The region relies on three main production methods: sea cages, ponds, and suspended culture, with sea bream, sea bass, and Mediterranean mussels as the most commonly cultivated species.
Türkiye, Egypt, and Greece rank as the three largest regional producers in that order, collectively accounting for about 71 percent of total output.
This edition of SoMFi follows the previous year’s release and marks the start of a new two-year cycle, with the next edition planned for 2025.
Spain, fishing power
Spain stands as the sixth-largest producer in the region by fishing volume, accounting for 8.6 percent of total output and about 57,163 tonnes, with revenue around 272 million euros. It is the second-largest Western Mediterranean producer after Algeria. The Spanish fleet comprises mostly small vessels, forming about half of the fleet, with trawlers and beam trawlers making up another significant portion.
Spain also leads in regional trade activity, though it runs a negative balance of roughly 25 percent, meaning imports exceed exports on both Atlantic and Mediterranean fronts, with a total trade value nearing 12 billion euros. Data cited come from SoMFi 2022.
Source material is available from FAO planning documents and SoMFi reports, with the ongoing work of regional bodies guiding policy and practice across the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins.