Invasive species are a growing threat in the United States, causing losses in biodiversity, changes in ecosystems, and impacts on economic enterprises such as agriculture, fisheries, and international trade. The costs of preventing and controlling invasive species are not well understood or documented, but estimates indicate that the costs are quite high. The costs of aquatic invasive species are even less well understood than those for terrestrial species. A systematic approach is needed to develop a consistent method to estimate the national costs of aquatic invasives. This review of the economic literature on aquatic invasive species is the first stage in the development of that estimate. We reviewed over sixty sources and include both empirical papers that present cost estimates as well as theoretical papers on preventing and mitigating the impacts of aquatic invasive species. Species-specific estimates are included for both animals and plants.

International audienceMarine recreational fishing (MRF) is a high-participation activity with large economic value and social benefits globally, and it impacts on some fish stocks. Although reporting MRF catches is a European Union legislative requirement, estimates are only available for some countries. Here, data on numbers of fishers, participation rates, days fished, expenditures, and catches of two widely targeted species were synthesized to provide European estimates of MRF and placed in the global context. Uncertainty assessment was not possible due to incomplete knowledge of error distributions; instead, a semi-quantitative bias assessment was made. There were an estimated 8.7 million European recreational sea fishers corresponding to a participation rate of 1.6%. An estimated 77.6 million days were fished, and expenditure was €5.9 billion annually. There were higher participation, numbers of fishers, days fished and expenditure in the Atlantic than the Mediterranean, but the Mediterranean estimates were generally less robust. Comparisons with other regions showed that European MRF participation rates and expenditure were in the mid-range, with higher participation in Oceania and the United States, higher expenditure in the United States, and lower participation and expenditure in South America and Africa. For both northern European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, Moronidae) and western Baltic cod (Gadus morhua, Gadidae) stocks, MRF represented 27% of the total removals. This study highlights the importance of MRF and the need for bespoke, regular and statistically sound data collection to underpin European fisheries management. Solutions are proposed for future MRF data collection in Europe and other regions to support sustainable fisheries management

No abstract

Coastal resource managers are often tasked with managing coastal ecosystems that are stressed by overexploitation, climate change, contaminants, and habitat loss, as well as biological invasions. Therefore, managers increasingly need better economic data to help them prioritize their management strategies and distribute their increasingly limited resources to those strategies. Despite frequent pronouncements about the substantial ecological and economic impacts of invasive species, there have been few if any rigorous analyses of the economic impacts of invasive species in coastal systems. Here we present a bioeconomic analysis of the impacts of the European green crab, Carcinus maenas, on commercial shellfisheries along the West Coast of the United States. Green crabs are among the most comprehensively studied and widely distributed invasive species in coastal systems, with established populations on every continent except Antarctica. Their impacts on commercial bivalve fisheries have been alleged or substantiated to varying degrees, but no formal analysis of the economic impacts of the green crab has been conducted. We assess economic impacts using a combination of ecological and economic models. The ecological models incorporate green crab dispersal and description of estuarine habitat and the relationship between green crab abundance and predation on prey populations. The economic analysis focuses on the green crab impacts on commercial shellfisheries, including both historical and present impacts of green crabs on several important shellfisheries, including soft-shell clams, blue mussels, scallops, hard-shell clams, and Manila clams. We conclude that the past and present economic impacts on the West Coast shellfisheries are minor, although losses could increase significantly if densities increase or with northward range expansion into Alaska.