overexploitation of the world’s fisheries is the
subject of much recent concern (FAO 2002, Pauly et al.
2002, Hilborn et al. 2003). Although the global production of fish and fishery products continues to grow, the harvest from capture fisheries has stagnated over the last decade. Today nu- merous fish stocks and species have declined since their his- torical peaks, and some have even collapsed, leading to urgent calls for more stringent management and the establishment of protected areas (Roberts et al. 2003). However, the dis- cussion of the current fisheries crisis has focused nearly ex- clusively on marine resources, and to some extent on associated threats to marine biodiversity, particularly those af- fecting charismatic animals such as seabirds, marine turtles, dolphins, and whales. The fisheries of inland waters have re- ceived only slight consideration within global analyses (FAO
1999, Hilborn et al. 2003, Kura et al. 2004). Here we summarize and evaluate the evidence that overfishing in inland waters is occurring and is a contributing factor to the decline of fresh- water biodiversity. We define inland fisheries as the capture of wild stocks of primarily freshwater fish, including migra- tory species that move between fresh water and the oceans. Although aquaculture significantly augments the supply of cer- tain species and contributes a substantial fraction to the over- all harvest, we focus on capture fisheries of natural stocks.
Fishing and the activities surrounding it—processing, packing, transport, and retailing—are important at every scale, from the village level to national and international economies. Fishing is a crucial source of livelihoods in de- veloping nations, particularly for low-income families in rural areas where job options are limited. Small-scale com- mercial and subsistence fishing often provides the employment of last resort when more lucrative labor opportunities can- not be found (Kura et al. 2004). This is particularly true for