Justification for Fisheries Reform
Resource information
This study and previous studies indicate
that the current marine catch could be achieved with
approximately half of the current global fishing effort. In
other words, there is massive overcapacity in the global
fleet. The excess fleets competing for the limited fish
resources result in stagnant productivity and economic
inefficiency. In response to the decline in physical
productivity, the global fleet has attempted to maintain
profitability by reducing labor costs, lobbying for
subsidies, and increasing investment in technology. Partly
as a result of the poor economic performance, real income
levels of fishers remain depressed as the costs per unit of
harvest have increased. Although the recent changes in food
and fuel prices have altered the fishery economy, over the
past decade real landed fish prices have stagnated,
exacerbating the problem. The value of the marine capture
seafood production at the point of harvest is some 20
percent of the $400 billion global food fish market. The
market strength of processors and retailers and the growth
of aquaculture, which now accounts for some 50 percent of
food fish production, have contributed to downward pressure
on producer prices. In technical terms, this study estimates
the loss of potential economic rent in the global fishery.
For the purposes of this study, economic rent is considered
broadly equivalent to net economic benefits, which is the
term used throughout most of the report. This study
estimated the difference between the potential and actual
net economic benefits from global marine fisheries using
2004 as the base year. The estimate was made using a model
that aggregated the world's highly diverse fisheries
into a single fishery. This made it possible to use the
available global fisheries data such as production, value of
production, and global fisheries profits as inputs to the model.
