Economic value of sustainable fisheries Rupert Crilly nef (the new economics foundation) and OCEAN2012.

Economic value of sustainable fisheries

Rupert Crillynef (the new economics foundation) and OCEAN2012

Overview

• Economic potential of fish stocks– Report: Jobs Lost at Sea

• How fish are caught matters:– Report: Value Slipping through the Net

• Concluding remarks

• NB: All data presented are official or calculations based on official or academic data. Full explanations, lists of materials and methods, results and references can be found on the nef website.

Myers & Worm (2003), Nature

Biomass of large predatory fish today is only about 10% of pre-industrial levels

We’ve all seen the graphs that look like this…

Costs of overfishing

• To the environment– Ecosystems at risk (instability, collapse, etc)– Irreversible loss (biodiversity)

• To people – Food security – Livelihoods at risk

• To the economy– Loss of wealth (lost rents, jobs) – Fishing industry at risk

Overfishing is a bad economic deal

FAO/World Bank estimate the annual cost of overfishing at US$50 billion, totalling US$2 trillion over the last three decades.

UK catches for cod, whiting and haddock could be five, four and three times bigger if stocks were allowed to recover, with the potential to increase economic gains ten-fold to more than £500m.

Jobs Lost at Sea: Overfishing and the jobs that never were• Our report studied the productive potential of fish stocks,

and compared this to their current performance

http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y3427e/y3427e07.htm

• Overfishing is defined relative to MSY

• A stock can be sustainably fished but still be below MSY. This too is costly in production terms

Jobs Lost at Sea: Overfishing and the jobs that never were• Our report studied the productive potential of fish stocks,

and compared this to their current performance

• Which fish stocks?– 43 spread across the North East Atlantic, including

multiple cod, haddock, herring and sole stocks (note: excludes all Mediterranean stocks)

– There are more than 150 fish stocks in the EU

Estimating economic costs - 1

• Difference between current and potential landings for all stocks– Landings in 2010 vs MSY

• Results:

• Value this difference– Using a price per tonne for each stock, on a regional

basis

• Results:

Estimating economic costs - 2

• Jobs supported per country– Fishing – Processing

• Results:

Estimating economic costs - 3

Results for top 10 stocks

Rebuild stocks or depend on taxpayer subsidies?

Managing scarce resources

• Public ownership of the resource…

• …means the public should gain from its exploitation

• Fisheries management should seek to deliver positive net returns to society

• But how are the greatest benefits to be delivered?

• Broaden focus from economic performance to include social and environmental factors

How fish are caught matters

• In an era of scarce natural resources, the question of who exploits the resource for public benefit is crucial because this determines the future of the stock

• Access criteria offer a viable solution• Environmental criteria

– Selective gear– Minimise bycatch– Minimise ecosystem impacts

• Social criteria – Employment– Improve food security

• Economic criteria– Loss of wealth (lost rents, jobs) – Subsidies– Fishing industry resilience

• NB all relative because this will promote

perpetual competition

North Sea:

ICES areas 27.IVa-c

Case study of an overfished stock: North Sea Cod

Objectives

• Compare gear type to see which have the highest net societal values

• There are many factors to consider, but we look at a sample:

– Economic: revenues, costs & subsidies– Environmental: discards & GHG emissions– Social: employment

• But there are many others:– Communities

– Historic and cultural value

– Stock sustainability (i.e. the impact of removing one tonne from the stock depends on the gear)

The main gears targeting cod in the North Sea are gillnets and trawls

Gear selectivity

Proportion of catch (by numbers)

LandingsDiscards

In numbers, not tonnes

• Specific to cod fishing, attributed proportionally• Presented on a per tonne basis• By categories: Gillnets 0-12m, Trawls 0-12m, 12-24m,

24-40m, >40m

Results

Fuel & direct subsidiesFuel and direct subsidies

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

TR1 under12m

TR1 12-24m TR1 24-40m TR1 over 40m GN1 under12m

Su

bsi

dy

(£)

Directsubsidies (£)

Fuelsubsidies (£)

Largest vessels receive most subsidies

Employment

Net impacts of gear types

Gillnets have the largest net benefit to societyThe larger the trawler, the more costlyThese results are not reflected in quota allocations

Policy

• Quota’s should be set in accordance with scientific advice on how to reach BMSY (or BMMSY)

• Public resources (incl subsidies) allocated to those who fish the most sustainably

Contact: Rupert Crilly

[email protected]

nef (new economics foundation) and OCEAN2012