By Jeff Young, Kristin Kleisner and Yong Chen
As climate change and overfishing continue to impact coastal communities worldwide, crustacean fisheries provide an opportunity for hope. Crustacean fisheries, consisting of species such as crabs, shrimps, prawns and lobster, provide a critical source of food, jobs, and income for coastal communities worldwide. These species tend to reproduce quickly and therefore have traditionally been considered more resilient to overfishing, which has contributed to crustaceans representing an increasing share of the global catch in many parts of the world. With overfishing and climate change continuing to pose threats to fisheries worldwide, crustaceans provide a critical opportunity for diversification and greater stability in livelihoods, assuming they can be managed well. Read More
In many fisheries, many species are caught at the same time. These are called multispecies fisheries, and the fact that they catch many species together, with the same gears, means that the different species are caught at the same rate. The trouble is, some species are productive enough to withstand high catches while others are not. So as a result, the low-productivity species get fished out, reducing overall yield, markets for diverse species and economic and ecological resilience — resulting in serial depletion. While many single-species fisheries are becoming more sustainable thanks to science-based management strategies, multispecies fisheries often face greater sustainability challenges, and these challenges will grow in the face of climate change. 
This August, a group of Indonesian, Chinese and Japanese scientists and policy professionals joined EDF to visit some of our long-time partners — fishermen, scientists and resource managers — in Oregon and Washington.