English: How much fish do we catch from each method?

Now that we have some understanding of what each of these methods mean, let’s look at how common each is.

In the charts here we see the breakdown of global wild fish catch by the type of fishing gear used. This data is sourced from the Sea Around Us database, published by Daniel Pauly, Dirk Zeller and Maria Palomares.4

Globally, bottom trawling is the most common method, accounting for one-quarter of fish catch. Pelagic (midwater) trawling accounts for an additional 10%. This means all types of trawling account for just over one-third of global fish catch. Purse seine is the second most common method, accounting for just over 20% of catch.

Gillnets and longlines account for much less of global fish catch. This is partly a result of the fact that they achieve less catch per landing than methods such as trawling or purse seine.

It’s interesting to see how common methods are across different countries. You can explore this data for any country using the + Change country button on the interactive charts. We see, for example, that bottom trawling is the dominant method used in China and India. It has been growing rapidly in recent years.

In contrast, bottom trawling is becoming less common across Europe. In many countries – such as the UK, Spain and Portugal – bottom trawling was intense throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s but has since declined significantly. That has been partly driven by efforts to reduce overfishing and allow fish stocks to rebuild. In addition, the European Commission banned bottom trawling in deep waters – those below 800m in depth – in 2016.

In countries where most fishing is subsistent – Bangladesh is one example – it’s small-scale fishing practices that dominate. Large-scale practices are almost non-existent.

Finally, we see that larger-scale practices are growing in some countries as they transition from small, subsistence fishing to larger industrial practices. In Ghana, for example, purse seine recently became the most common form of catch.