Abstract
Global marine fisheries are currently underperforming, largely due to overfishing. An analysis of global databases finds that resource rent net of subsidies from rebuilt world fisheries could increase from the current negative US$13 billion to positive US$54 billion per year, resulting in a net gain of US$600 to US$1,400 billion in present value over fifty years after rebuilding. To realize this gain, governments need to implement a rebuilding program at a cost of about US$203 (US$130–US$292) billion in present value. We estimate that it would take just 12 years after rebuilding begins for the benefits to surpass the cost. Even without accounting for the potential boost to recreational fisheries, and ignoring ancillary and non-market values that would likely increase, the potential benefits of rebuilding global fisheries far outweigh the costs.
Highlights
Fish are among the planet’s most important renewable natural resources
Returns to capital invested and payments to labor would amount to US$3 (US$2–4) billion and US$16 (US$12–19) billion per annum, respectively, while resource rent from rebuilt global fisheries would be US$54 (US$39–77) billion per year. (The Sunken Billions report of the World Bank [20], which estimated economic rent without addressing the cost of reform, arrived at a potential resource rent of US$50 billion per year, using a different approach.) Gains in resource rent from the current situation to a rebuilt global fishery would be US$66 (US$51–89) billion a year, while wages and returns to capital will decrease to US$16 and US$3 billion, respectively (Table 1)
Even without accounting for the potential boost to recreational fisheries, processing, retail and non-market values that would likely increase, there is a substantial net economic benefit to be derived from rebuilding global fisheries, with net gains large enough to compensate for uncertainties in our assumptions and
Summary
Fish are among the planet’s most important renewable natural resources. As demonstrated by the collapse of northern cod off Newfoundland, the depletion of fish stocks can have devastating effects on human well-being [10,11]. As human populations continue to grow, the future benefits that fishery resources can provide will depend largely on how well they are rebuilt and managed. Policy makers often perceive that rebuilding fisheries is too expensive in the short-term and avoid taking the necessary actions to sustainably manage fish stocks. A crucial question for policy makers is what is the potential net economic benefit of rebuilding global fisheries? We address this question on a global scale
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