幾年前看過外國人寫有關台灣遠洋漁業的文章，不過就是找年報資料開始拼湊，嘗試了解臺灣，總不免有些誤解或偏見出現。最近幾年，臺灣自己學者寫的文章多了，此類情況就少得多。
相對的，還是有人對中國有興趣，第一篇文章是2001年代Pauly 等人大膽揭露中國大陸高報沿近海漁業產量。此舉讓中國一度不願意提報漁獲量給FAO、繼而展開漁獲量調查，後來宣稱此虛報狀況已經有效改善。
第二篇Marine Policy文章在度嘗試用各種資訊了解中國遠洋漁業與非洲的漁業合作關係，當然不免用現有統計資料推測(穿鑿附會)一番。
第三篇Fish and Fisheries的文章，則是Pauly等人捲土重來，認為中國大陸低報遠洋漁業產量。
但不知這高報與低報之間，到底中國的總產量、乃至全球的總產量是高是低呢？
說真的，漁業的不確定性太高，比天氣還難預測的多，這些推估能有多準呢？科學家們心裡也有數，特別是參加過很多科學會議之後，發現許多科學其實也參雜政治色彩，就當是成就一篇篇PAPER吧!
Reg Watson & Daniel Pauly, 2001, Systematic distortions in world fisheries catch trends, Nature 414, 534-536 | doi:10.1038/35107050
Over 75% of the world marine fisheries catch (over 80 million tonnes per year) is sold on international markets, in contrast to other food commodities (such as rice). At present, only one institution, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) maintains global fisheries statistics. As an intergovernmental organization, however, FAO must generally rely on the statistics provided by member countries, even if it is doubtful that these correspond to reality. Here we show that misreporting by countries with large fisheries, combined with the large and widely fluctuating catch of species such as the Peruvian anchoveta, can cause globally spurious trends. Such trends influence unwise investment decisions by firms in the fishing sector and by banks, and prevent the effective management of international fisheries.
Mallory, T. G. (2013). China's distant water fishing industry: Evolving policies and implications. Marine Policy, 38(0), 99-108. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2012.05.024
Abstract
This article examines China's distant water fishing industry, with a focus on China's bilateral fisheries access agreements in Africa. The article argues that China largely conforms to international norms and rules on sustainable fisheries, but that challenges remain in efforts to work with China on the sustainable management of fish stocks. Developed countries contribute to China's policies and behavior in international fisheries in both positive and negative ways.
Pauly, D., D. Belhabib, R. Blomeyer, W. W. W. L. Cheung, A. M. Cisneros-Montemayor, D. Copeland, S. Harper, V. W. Y. Lam, Y. Mai, F. Le Manach, H. Österblom, K. M. Mok, L. van der Meer, A. Sanz, S. Shon, U. R. Sumaila, W. Swartz, R. Watson, Y. Zhai, and D. Zeller. 2013. China's distant-water fisheries in the 21st century. Fish and Fisheries: doi: 10.1111/faf.12032.
We conservatively estimate the distant-water fleet catch of the People's Republic of China for 2000–2011, using a newly assembled database of reported occurrence of Chinese fishing vessels in various parts of the world and information on the annual catch by vessel type. Given the unreliability of official statistics, uncertainty of results was estimated through a regionally stratified Monte Carlo approach, which documents the presence and number of Chinese vessels in Exclusive Economic Zones and then multiplies these by the expected annual catch per vessel. We find that China, which over-reports its domestic catch, substantially under-reports the catch of its distant-water fleets. This catch, estimated at 4.6 million t year−1 (95% central distribution, 3.4–6.1 million t year−1) from 2000 to 2011 (compared with an average of 368 000 t·year−1 reported by China to FAO), corresponds to an ex-vessel landed value of 8.93 billion € year−1 (95% central distribution, 6.3–12.3 billion). Chinese distant-water fleets extract the largest catch in African waters (3.1 million t year−1, 95% central distribution, 2.0–4.4 million t), followed by Asia (1.0 million t year−1, 0.56–1.5 million t), Oceania (198 000 t year−1, 144 000–262 000 t), Central and South America (182 000 t year−1, 94 000–299 000 t) and Antarctica (48 000 t year−1, 8 000–129 000 t). The uncertainty of these estimates is relatively high, but several sources of inaccuracy could not be fully resolved given the constraints inherent in the underlying data and method, which also prevented us from distinguishing between legal and illegal catch.
