Reconstructing a century of marine landings and fishing effort in Malaysia and Singapore

Marine capture fisheries are crucial for many coastal communities in Malaysia and Singapore. However, knowledge of the historical state of the marine fishing resources, particularly during the British colonial period, remains limited. We compiled annual species landing data and fishing metrics from colonial and contemporary fishery reports spanning 114 years, from 1907 to 2021. Our results revealed a steady increase in species landings over 90 years, peaking in 2016 before declining in recent years. Through three case studies, we highlight high colonial landings of fusiliers (Caesionidae) from Singapore, reflecting extensive fishing operations across Southeast Asia. Bayesian Change Point analyses also identified increases in lobster landings along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia in the mid-1980s, with fishing operations expanding from Johor northward through Pahang and Terengganu. Granger-causality tests revealed significant associations between Indian mackerel landings and the number of powered fishing boats in Perlis and Kedah in western Peninsular Malaysia, with varying lag intervals among each state. While these results enhance our understanding of fisheries trends, spatial expansion of fisheries and technological changes complicate the interpretation of fishery trends. Our results suggest that the plateau in global fishery landings since the 1980s may also have already occurred in Southeast Asia.