The use of the contribution margin on the valorisation of polish fisheries for maritime spatial planning

Abstract

One of the primary goals of spatial planning is to provide decision makers with documents that will allow them to optimize the use of marine space. The function of such an optimization strategy is to maximize the usability of the sea surface. This article focuses on the pragmatic aspects of marine spatial planning. The authors presuppose a tool for planners that (i) is based on readily available information, is comparable for various countries (ii) and for which the economic interpretation is straightforward and allows for the comparison of fisheries with other sectors. The analysis is based on two pan-European surveys collected under the Common Fisheries Policy. The distribution and catch information is sourced from the Vessel Monitoring System and logbooks, and the economic data come from the national data submissions for the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries. A contribution margin consisting of the difference between the revenue and variable costs at a spatial unit with a 0.05-degree resolution was chosen as the most appropriate indicator for these purposes. A variable costing method can be used to determine the efficiency of maritime sectors in specific spatial units without artificially assigning costs that are unrelated to a given sea area. The analysis covers the period of 2013–2017. Three key areas for Polish fisheries have been identified: the Gulf of Gdansk, the Bornholm Basin, and the Słupsk Furrow; the average contribution margins in these regions were 1133, 651 and 580 EUR/km2, respectively. The variance analysis revealed that the high indicator values were mostly influenced by high catches of sprat and herring fished with pelagic trawls as well as high sprat prices. Fishing with passive gear (gillnets, hooks) and in the 3rd and 4th quarters proved to result in deficits in a large Polish maritime area. The indicators may have been influenced by the lack of data on the individual steaming times, as well as by variations among fuel consumptions and salary costs within fleet segments. Despite these limitations, the method used in this study allows a first attempt at the estimation of the contribution margin and its spatial variation over time in the context of Maritime Spatial Planning needs. The calculation undertaken in this paper yields the monetary interpretation of private spatial rents and future comparisons among various maritime sectors and various countries.