Quantification of U.S. Marine Fisheries Subsidies

—Subsidies to the fishing industry are common worldwide, and it is well accepted that these subsidies contribute to overcapacity in fishing fleets and overexploitation of fisheries resources. To date, however, most of the quantitative estimates of these subsidies reported in the literature have been at either the multicountry or global level. Estimates are rarely based on a detailed accounting of individual subsidy programs, limiting both their accuracy and usefulness for management decisions. The present analysis helps fill this gap with respect to U.S. fisheries subsidies. Here, we report estimates of the different types of subsidies paid to the fishing sector by different levels of government in the USA. Our analysis shows that from 1996 to 2004, the U.S. fishing industry received a total of US$6.4 billion (1 billion1⁄410) in government subsidies (an average of $713 million per year), federal funds accounting for 79% of this total. This estimate is conservative because it does not include funding for fisheries management, port construction and maintenance, or subsidy program administration. Federal and state fuel subsidies (44% combined) and federal and state fisheries research (40% combined) accounted for the vast majority of fisheries subsidies. The next three largest subsidies were state sales tax subsidies (5%), disaster aid (4%), and fishing access payments (3%). Distribution was heavily weighted toward Alaska and the western Pacific and toward Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. and tunas (family Scombridae). Similar detailed examinations of fisheries subsidies in other countries will be necessary in the likely event that the World Trade Organization establishes rules prohibiting subsidies that contribute to overcapacity. The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that the proportion of overexploited and depleted fishery stocks has risen from about 10% in the mid-1970s to close to 25% today (FAO 2004). Academic research shows an even bleaker situation. The statistics for the USA are similar. According to National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS) data for 2006, a quarter of the nation’s 530 monitored fish stocks are overfished and 20% are experiencing overfishing (NOAA 2006). Although estimates vary, it is also clear that there is a great imbalance between fishing capacity and the number of fish that can be sustainably caught. The Food and Agriculture Organization has calculated that there is about 30% overcapacity in the world’s fishing fleet with respect to major stocks (FAO 1999). The World Wildlife Fund has put the figure even higher, estimating that the number of boats on the ocean is 2.5 times the needed number for sustainable catch (WWF 1998). Further indication that current fishing patterns are unsustainable, a 1998 study examining global statistics on fish landings from 1950 to 1994 noted a significant shift in the kinds of fish landed: from longlived fish at the top of the food chain toward shortlived fish low on the food chain (Pauly et al. 1998). Although fishery management failures have long been recognized to play a key role in the growing problem of overfishing and overcapacity, more recently a consensus has emerged that government subsidies to the fishing industry are also an important contributor. As the Federal Fisheries Investment Task Force noted in a major report on U.S. fisheries subsidies in 1999