The Rise of the Emerging Big Four: Global Warming and the New Landscape of Fisheries

Traditionally, the four most famous fishing grounds in the world are the Hokkaido fishing grounds in Japan, the Newfoundland fishing grounds in Canada, the North Sea fishing grounds in the United Kingdom and the Peruvian fishing grounds in Peru. These fisheries are famous for their rich fishery resources and unique reasons for their formation. Nowadays, with global warming and changes in fishery resources, the emerging four major fishing grounds are gradually replacing the traditional fishing grounds as the new fishing centres.

The four traditional global fishing grounds

Hokkaido Fishing Ground
Located in the southeastern waters of Hokkaido, Japan, it is the core of the North Pacific fishing grounds. It is one of the largest fishing grounds in the world, formed at the confluence of the warm Japanese Current and the cold Thousand Islands Current. Due to the abundance of plankton and dense fish populations, the main catches of the Hokkaido fishery include Pacific salmon, Pacific herring, Pacific pleco-perch, Far Eastern sardine, and Pacific swordfish. This fishery is regarded as the world's number one fishery because of its excellent fishing conditions.

Newfoundland Fisheries
Located off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, it is the centre of the Northwest Atlantic fishery. The Labrador Current and the Gulf of Mexico Current converge here to form the Newfoundland fishery. The area is famous for its Atlantic cod, and is known as the place where you can step on the back of a cod school to land a fish. In addition to Atlantic cod, the main species caught in the Newfoundland fishery include capelin (springfish), Canadian redfish, Greenland halibut and Atlantic halibut.

North Sea Fishery
Located on the northeastern edge of the Atlantic Ocean, this fishery is formed by the confluence of the warm North Atlantic Current and the cold waters from the Arctic Ocean. This fishery is centred on the northern waters of the United Kingdom, hence the name North Sea Fishery. The main catches include Atlantic cod, Atlantic mackerel and Atlantic herring. The fishery is fished and managed by the North Sea coastal countries of the United Kingdom (Scotland), Norway and the Netherlands.

Peruvian Fishery
Located off the coast of Peru in the eastern Pacific Ocean, it is formed by the upward compensatory flow of the Peruvian Cold Current. The strong Peruvian cold current and the southeast trade winds converge here, causing the surface waters to deviate from the coast and the lower cold water to flood upwards, providing extremely favourable conditions for the survival of cold water fish. Peruvian fisheries are rich in Peruvian anchovy and Peruvian giant squid, especially Peruvian giant squid (stemmed softsquid), and China's pelagic squid fishing fleet is one of its main fishing forces.

Emerging world's four major fisheries

Barents Sea Fisheries
The Barents Sea, located to the north of Norway and Russia, is an important emerging fishery. The Barents Sea is known for its extensive continental shelf, covering a total area of 1.37 million square kilometres, 94% of which lies on the continental shelf. The fishery is known for its high quality red king crab and green-eyed snow crab, which are mainly exported to China. Fisheries in the Barents Sea fishery are jointly managed by Norway and Russia, and the main catches include Atlantic cod, haddock, turbot and Arctic shrimp. Due to overfishing, the two countries set the Atlantic cod fishing quota at 725,000 tonnes in 2018 and banned fishing for pollock altogether to protect the ecosystem.In 2024, the pollock fishing quota was further reduced to 453,000 tonnes.

Okhotsk Fishery
The Sea of Okhotsk, located in the Russian Far East, is an important area for fishery resources. The main species fished in the Sea of Okhotsk include Russian pollock, Pacific salmon, golden king crab, blue king crab, green-eyed snow crab and red snow crab. Fisheries in this fishery are managed and certified by Russian and relevant fisheries organisations. For example, the Russian Cod Fishermen's Association successfully completed a Marine Management Certification (MSC) recertification for the Sea of Okhotsk trawl cod fishery, extending the MSC certificate for five years. The Sea of Okhotsk fishery involves international co-operation and resource management issues, such as the Sea of Okhotsk Transboundary Stock Sharing Agreement between Russia and Japan.

Alaska Fisheries
Located off the coast of the State of Alaska in the United States, it benefits from natural conditions such as the Alaskan Warm Current and the prevailing westerly wind zone, which are characterised by flourishing plankton and provide abundant bait for fish. The main species caught in the Alaska fishery include five species of Pacific salmon (pink, sockeye, dog, king and silver salmon), as well as halibut such as Alaska pollock and golden flounder. The Alaskan fishery is one of the world's leading fisheries because of its abundance of fisheries.

Nova Scotia Fishing
Located on the east coast of Canada, Nova Scotia is a peninsula surrounded by more than 7,600 kilometres of coastline, each no more than 67 kilometres from the Atlantic Ocean. Nova Scotia is rich in fisheries, especially lobster fishing, known for its firm, delicate and fatty lobsters. Each year, more than 90 per cent of the fresh lobster on the Chinese market comes from Nova Scotia. The province also produces Atlantic scallops, Canadian snow crab, Atlantic flounder and Canadian Arctic ginseng. In recent years, redfish stocks have rebounded and Nova Scotia has been granted a larger commercial redfish fishing quota, bringing new opportunities for the local fishery.

Reasons for the turnover of old and new fisheries

The traditional four major fishing grounds have experienced severe overfishing due to earlier exploitation, and the resources are difficult to recover. The four emerging fisheries were developed later and a fishing quota system was introduced at an early stage, so the fishery resources have not suffered any serious decline. However, as the global population grows and incomes rise, the demand for wild marine resources continues to increase, and the emerging fisheries are under tremendous pressure to reduce their fishing quotas in order to conserve resources.

In recent years, global demand for crustaceans and cephalopods has increased, with higher market prices than for traditional fish, and fishers have shifted to these seafoods, reducing fishing pressure on demersal and pelagic fish. However, overfishing of mesopelagic marine organisms affects the marine life chain, with incalculable long-term effects.

Global warming has led to the migration of marine organisms to the north and south poles, making it difficult to restore the resources of traditional fishing grounds, while emerging fishing grounds are constantly replenished by organisms migrating from low-latitude waters and are becoming increasingly rich in biological resources. Human activities and global warming are reshaping marine ecology, and the replacement of old and new fishing grounds is witnessing the rebuilding of the marine biological chain.