Restoring fish stocks in the EU and UK to sustainable levels would provide significant economic benefits. According to the document, catching fish at maximum sustainable yield (MSY) would result in an additional 3.5 million tonnes of catch worth €3.2 billion annually, supporting over 100,000 jobs. While it would cost €10-12 billion to compensate fishermen during a 4 year moratorium, the investment would be recovered within 4.6 years. Maintaining fish stocks below MSY amounts to ongoing economic losses of over £2.7 billion per year and 100,000 jobs.

1. Economic benefits
of healthy fisheries
aniol.esteban@neweconomics.org
rupert.crilly@neweconomics.org
www.neweconomics.org

2. One key message
“Restoring fish stocks is good for
UK/EU economy”

3. Can the EU/UK meet fish demand from its
own waters?
What would be the revenue/jobs gains if
EU stocks were at sustainable levels?
How much would it cost to get there?

4. Fish Dependence
Compares fish production vs
consumption.
Estimates at when in the year calendar
a country starts depending on fish from
non-EU waters.
Fish production (supply): EU catch + Aquaculture
Fish Consumption (demand): Total catch + Aquac. + Imports – Exports
Self-sufficiency: Supply / Demand

5. Fish Dependence

6. Fish dependence has increased over time – stable over past 3 years
Aquaculture marginal impact to reduce increasing dependence on non-EU fish
UK is a net importer – but could be a net exporter if fish stocks at MSY

7. What are the economic gains of
fish stock restoration?
(i.e. How much are we losing by keeping EU
stocks overfished?)

8. Jobs lost at sea
Our report compares current
performance of 43 fish stocks with
their potential if they were at MSY.
1) Catches
2) Revenues
3) Employment
Note: there are 150 commercial fish
stocks in EU

9. Where we are VS. where we could be
Figure 3: The current value of catches from 54 fish stocks are shown relative
to their sustainable maximum. Source: MSY estimates from Froese &
Proelß and current value of catches are own calculations based on ICES
stock assessments and the AER.

10. Potential additional catch (43 stocks)
MSY landings 2010 landings Additional catch
(tonnes) (tonnes) (tonnes)
9,756,519 6,230,564 3,525,955
Catches in 2010 were 64% of their potential
3.53 million tonnes is enough to meet the
annual demand for fish for 155 million EU
citizens

11. Additional revenue (43 stocks)
MSY landings 2010 landings Additional value
(million €) (million €) (million €)
7,137 3,949 3,188
€3.2 billion (£2.7bn) is more than five times
annual fisheries subsidies paid to EU states

12. Employment potential
Fishing Processing Total
31,802 68,988 100,790
32,000 full-time fishing jobs, and 69,000 (full-
and part-time) processing jobs every year.
About 83,000 of these are in the EU27.

13. With every passing year that our
stocks remain overfished we are
losing out on 2.7 billion pounds
and the potential to support
100,000 jobs.

14. How can we halt this drain? and
how much would it cost?

15. No Catch Investment
Profitability of restoring fish stocks
Recovery time for EU “overfished” fish
stocks
Benefits of doing so (i.e. Like Jobs
Lost at Sea)
Investment needed to compensate
fishermen for “forgone” revenues
during the moratoria period.

16. How long to MSY?
Most stocks would
be rebuilt within 5
years

17. No Catch Investment
In just 4 years: higher and + sustainable fish supply.
€10-12 billion investment recovered in 4.6 years.
From thereafter we would get positive returns on investment of
50% after 10yrs up to 1400% after 40yrs.
Investing £9.16 billion in restoring fish stocks would generate
£4.43 billion profit by 2023
Investment from private funds. Public funding targeted towards
delivering MSY.

18. Source: www.neweconomics.org/sites/neweconomics.org/files/NoCatch_web.pdf

19. Final (unquestionable) points
EU fish stocks are not delivering as much as
they could if they were at MSY.
Keeping fish stocks below MSY levels is
synonymous with loss of revenues and jobs.
The quickest way to restore fish stocks (bMSY)
is to stop fishing stocks which are below MSY

21. Within the current context:
Fish stock restoration is the most important thing
that that the fishing sector can do to reduce
vulnerability and increase resilience to external
shocks.
It is also the main (only) variable we can control.

22. THANK YOU
Reports available at: ww.neweconomics.org
Email: aniol.esteban@neweconomics.org
rupert.crilly@neweconomics.org