Inland waters and shark catch statistics subsets included in the FAO database have been often critically scrutinized in recent years. Despite that total global inland water catch exceeded 10 million tonnes since 2008 and increased by 20% between 2004 EGFR inhibitor and 2009, it is still the opinion [42] and [43] that it may be underestimated. However, recent global totals have been seriously influenced by great catch increases reported by some major Asian inland waters fishing countries which do not seem fully reliable [35] and [44]. Many environmentalist groups are devoting efforts to raise awareness on the status of shark stocks and campaign within international organizations

[45]. In this context, the need to improve the quality of shark

catch data collected by countries and reported to FAO is often raised. However, shark is the marine species group with the highest increase in number of species items in the FAO database during the last 15 years. Improvements selleck chemicals llc and problems in interpretation of shark catch data were illustrated by the FAO fishery statistics group to a recent workshop on the shark status [46]. When capture and aquaculture data are extracted from the FAO databases, it should be kept in mind that, in order to obtain totals by country, continent and other aggregates as presented in FAO publications, some species groups have to be excluded. Besides those species groups

which are given in numbers (i.e. whales, seals and crocodiles) and those grouped under ‘Miscellaneous aquatic animal products’ (i.e. pearls, corals and sponges), aquatic plants are also usually excluded. However, given their relevance in the aquaculture sector and use as human food in various regions, some studies include also aquatic plants in the aquaculture production greatly increasing the total obtained. Every two years, recent trends of global capture production are analyzed in the FAO Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture’s flagship publication “The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture”, also widely known as SOFIA [35]. For those fishing areas where no stock assessment information is available, data included in the database are also used to provide some Idoxuridine hint on the stock status for the “Review of the State of World Marine Fishery Resources” [47] prepared by the FAO Marine and Inland Fisheries Service. An FAO study by Garibaldi and Caddy [48] attempted to quantify geographical stocks that could be considered as depleted on the basis of catch statistics for a 33-year period examined by a multiple criteria method. About 10% of the species items analyzed matched the selection criteria, that is the same proportion of stocks classified as depleted by FAO in the stock status report available at that time [49], even though differences were found among the species identified.