Fisheries Impacts on North Atlantic Ecosystems: Evaluations and Policy Exploration
A Sustainability Ranking of North Atlantic Fisheries
Ratana Chuenpagdee and Jackie AlderAbstract
This paper describes a scaling method employed to aggregate three independent rankings of the sustainability of fisheries from eleven countries in the North Atlantic. These fisheries were first scored and ranked using three measures, (a) Rapfish assessment of sustainability, (b) compliance of fisheries with the FAO Code of Conduct, and (c) compliance of nations with the international fisheries agreements. These rankings were then tested for significant correlations and the aggregation of scores were performed accordingly. The ranking of sustainability based on the aggregated scores, while allowing the comparison of different fisheries through the same unit, serves as an additional perspective for a thorough discussion on the sustainability issues of North Atlantic fisheries.