The report highlights unique sustainability challenges faced by deep sea species due to late maturation, slow growth, long lifespans, low mortality rates, and infrequent spawning.

• It also highlights the threat of overfishing as well as Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing as major concerns.

Key Findings

• Only 29% of deep-sea fish stocks are being sustainably fished, making them highly vulnerable.
• Globally, 64.5% of all fishery stocks are exploited within sustainable levels, while 35.5% are overfished.
• Over half of highly migratory shark stocks are considered unsustainable, with 43.5% of 23 assessed shark stocks being overfished.

The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies creates three key prohibitions:

• Bans subsidies for vessels or operators involved in IUU fishing.
• Prohibits subsidies for fishing overfished stocks unless measures are in place to rebuild them to sustainable levels.
• Forbids subsidies for fishing activities outside coastal state jurisdiction and beyond regional fisheries management organization oversight.