Global Assessment of River Fish Production and Potential Global Change Implications

Better understanding of the overall fishery production in river systems around the world may influence general development policies and practices for aquatic systems and sustainable maintenance of an important protein source (particularly for poorer countries where fish are relatively readily available to the local human population). With this study, researchers worked to fill this knowledge gap by estimating the overall fishery production in river networks globally using multivariate statistical models with explanatory variables compiled from remotely sensed and in‐situ observations.



The freshwater fish production in rivers was estimated by: 

1. Developing models using key drivers (temperature, precipitation, land use variables etc.) that impact fish production and validating these models using existing harvest data from river fisheries. 

2. Predicting the response of river fish production to global change (climate and land use) using the present day river fish production model as a baseline and using downscaled climate scenarios. We focused on global inland river systems which complements another project focusing on estimation of fishery production from the lakes (Bunnell et al. 2014, Deines et al. 2014). 



Fisheries data from global rivers are currently not collected in a standardized format. By developing a standardized database and then a transferable global production model we will be able to remotely estimate drivers of fish productivity and compare them with in‐situ data collected from regions with current field assessment programs. With the improved understanding of the river fishery production estimates, policy makers and managers also have better information to formulate their annual harvesting policies to keep their fisheries stock within maximum sustainable limits.