Contribution of marine fisheries to worldwide employment

Abstract

Marine fisheries contribute to the global economy, from the catching of fish through to the provision of support services for the fishing industry. General lack of data and uncertainty about the level of employment in marine fisheries can lead to underestimation of fishing effort and hence over‐exploited fisheries, or result in inaccurate projections of economic and societal costs and benefits. To address this gap, a database of marine fisheries employment for 144 coastal nations was compiled. Gaps in employment data that emerged were filled using a Monte Carlo approach to estimate the number of direct and indirect fisheries jobs. We focused on estimating jobs in the small‐scale fishing sector. We characterized small‐scale fishing as (i) primarily geared towards household consumption or sale at the local level; (ii) conducted at a low level of economic activity; (iii) minimally mechanized; (iv) conducted within inshore areas; (v) minimally managed; and/or (vi) undertaken for cultural or ceremonial purposes. In total, we estimated that 260 ± 6 million people are involved in global marine fisheries, encompassing full‐time and part‐time jobs in the direct and indirect sectors, with 22 ± 0.45 million of those being small‐scale fishers. This is equivalent to 203 ± 34 million full‐time equivalent jobs. Study results can be used to improve management decision making and highlight the need to improve monitoring and reporting of the number of people employed in marine fisheries globally.

Trends in global shared fisheries

“…Further, Japan, China, and South Korea are among the top 10 countries worldwide in terms of subsidies provided to their national fishing industries . At the same time, China is the only top shared fisheries country that is also among the top 10 countries providing marine employment (Teh & Sumaila 2013). Thus, on a global scale, a common characteristic of major shared fisheries countries is their dominance in fisheries production, high provision of fisheries sub sidies, and limited contribution to global marine em ployment.…”

Modeling habitat and bycatch risk for dugongs in Sabah, Malaysia

“…According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), over 90% of the 436 million vessels active in the world can be classified as small-scale fishers (Béné 2005). Small-scale fisheries support up to 22 million fishers, which represents more than 40% of fishers in primary production (Teh & Sumaila 2013). Despite their prevalence, understanding the impacts of small-scale fisheries on megafaunal bycatch is difficult.…”

Who Brings in the Fish? The Relative Contribution of Small-Scale and Industrial Fisheries to Food Security in Southeast Asia

“…Small-scale inshore fisheries are the backbone of socio-economic well-being in coastal communities throughout the world (Béné, 2006;Harvey, 2006;Teh and Sumaila, 2013), particularly in the tropics where the majority of countries with heavily fish dependent populations are situated (Golden et al, 2016). In these locations, fish is crucial for food security and health, providing not only daily protein requirements, but also a range of essential micronutrients that fend off diseases of malnutrition.…”

“…Thailand's Department of Fisheries' definition is based on boat gross tonnage, whereby small-scale is defined as inboard powered boats of less than 10 GT, and that generally operate inshore. For the purpose of this study, we define small-scale fisheries as those that exhibit some or all of the following characteristics: (i) primarily geared toward household consumption, sale at the local level, or export in the case of high value species; (ii) usually at low level (primary and secondary) of economic activity; (iii) for fulfilling cultural or ceremonial purposes; (iv) non-mechanized, or involve low technology and low capital investment; (v) undertaken by the fisher and/or family members only; (vi) conducted within inshore areas; and (vii) minimally managed (Teh and Sumaila, 2013). We consider industrial fisheries to be large-scale, commercial fishing operations that involve substantial capital investment and take place in coastal or offshore fishing grounds, in which fishing is typically carried out by a crew and lasts from days to months at a time.…”