Multidisciplinary evaluation of the sustainability of Red Sea fisheries using Rapfish

A multidisciplinary comparative evaluation of the “health” or sustainability status of 26 major Red Sea fisheries from 5 countries was performed using 44 scored attributes in ecological, economic, social, technological and ethical fields. A multidimensional scaling (MDS) technique (“Rapfish”) was employed to visualize the status of the fisheries for each evaluation field. Comparisons were made among the countries bordering the Red Sea coast, between artisanal and industrial fisheries, and between west and east coast fisheries. Monte Carlo re-sampling was used to analyze uncertainty. Leverage analysis examined the sensitivity of status results to each attribute in the five evaluation fields. Lack of reliable fisheries stock assessment data is not unusual in many tropical countries; however, this paper demonstrates that the approximate relative status of fisheries can be obtained using attributes which are relatively easy to score in a transparent fashion with defined uncertainty.