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THE COST OF WASTE IN THE U.S.

THE FISHING INDUSTRY in the United States is an important part of the economy, generating $82 billion in sales and supporting 1.2 million jobs. Unfortunately, much of this value could be undercut by ALASKA NEW ENGLAND & $17 million: bycatch, the capture and discarding of non-target and ocean wildlife at sea, often already dead or & PACIFIC FISHERMEN COULD LOSE AT LEAST MID-ATLANTIC Value of fish discarded dying. According to estimates by the National Marine Service, 2 billion pounds of fish are thrown by flatfish trawlers in the out by fishermen every year, representing a great deal of ecological and economic waste. Oceana’s Gulf of Alaska Every year, fish worth millions analysis calculates that discarded fish could be worth at least $1 billion annually. Alaska produces the highest $1 BILLION EVERY YEAR of dollars are thrown overboard, earnings in the country for including more than $20 Besides the economic impacts, bycatch also remains one of the products, bringing in million in sea , $13.5 largest threats to the health of marine ecosystems, contributing FISHERMEN COULD fish worth $1.7 billion in 2012. million in , $7 million to global overfishing and the decline of fish populations all over However, valuable fish thrown BECAUSE OF BYCATCH in monkfish and $4 million in the world, as noted in Oceana’s report Wasted Catch: Unsolved LOSE UP TO $1 BILLION away include Pacific , hake. Discarded fish in this Problems in U.S. Fisheries. Fishermen discard fish for three main snow and red king , Pacific ANNUALLY DUE region are worth an average reasons: the fish are poor quality, have low market values, or and sablefish. Along the of 50 cents per pound. regulations prohibit them from being kept. These discarded fish TO BYCATCH coast of California, Oregon have real value both ecologically within their ecosystems and and Washington, valuable fish SOUTH ATLANTIC & GULF OF MEXICO economically to fishermen. that are commonly discarded Fisheries in the southeast region threw away fish worth at least half of a include spiny , rockfish, California VALUING NATURAL RESOURCES: THE COST OF BYCATCH , sea bass, billion dollars in 2010, including $45 million in seatrout, $27 million in red $25 million: gillnet fisheries Value of discarded Much of what is in the ocean provides measurable value, which includes fish as well as seaweed products, shortfin mako and snapper, $25 million in Atlantic croaker, $4.2 million in king , also capture and fish in the regional minerals, tidal energy, wildlife tourism and even the very oxygen we breathe. Fisheries are among the thresher sharks. The average $3.4 million in bluefin and $1.3 million in . The average price kill a large number of bottom trawl fisheries, most valuable of our natural resources, providing food, incomes and recreational opportunities for price per pound of discarded per pound of wasted fish in this region was $1.20, the highest in the U.S. vulnerable sea turtles, equivalent to 20 percent millions of people. In 2012, U.S. commercial fishermen landed almost 10 billion pounds of fish worth just fish in 2010 was 63 cents. dolphins, whales and of the total value of over $5 billion dollars. Unfortunately, all of this added value is undermined by the discarding of fish as baby great white the fisheries bycatch. Bycatch costs fishermen in lost time, ruined gear and wasted catch. sharks every year In the 1990s, the Food and Agriculture Organization concluded that losses $3 million: due to fish discarding could equal or exceed the value of landed catch in Value of discarded red in the some fisheries, with billions of dollars hanging in the balance worldwide. $53 million: Value snapper-grouper longline of discarded Pacific THE , also responsible In this report, Oceana multiplied the best available nationwide bycatch data halibut, equivalent to $3 million: for discarding more than BOTTOM in the NMFS’ National Bycatch Report by the price per pound of each fish 25% of the landed Value of discarded $250,000 worth of species across three regions of the U.S., to compile its national estimate. This value in one year $100 million: cod, an overfished LINE red snapper simple analytical approach provides a conservative estimate, and does not Value of fish discarded and highly valuable Bycatch costs include recreational fisheries, indirect losses of diminished wages and costs $0.5 million: in the southeast species of replacing ruined gear, among other variables. However, this estimate is a Value of bluefin tuna trawl fishery, responsible for fishermen and wasted in the California useful tool for evaluating the costs of discarding in our fisheries. the deaths of thousands of sea the marine drift gillnet fishery in turtles annually and some of one year Oceana’s economic analysis demonstrates that wasting billions of pounds the highest bycatch rates in environment in the U.S. of fish is not economically or ecologically sensible. Fisheries managers and more ways than $4 million: $8.5 million: fishermen should make informed decisions about the costs and benefits Value of discarded Value of discarded one. Improving of reducing bycatch compared with the risk of doing nothing. Improving the target fish within the summer and yellowtail gear selectivity selectivity of gear or providing incentives for fishermen to avoid bycatch Atlantic pelagic longline in regional trawl pays dividends into the future. While fisheries management and science are fishery, including tuna, and dredge fisheries, and providing complex and continually evolving, the logic of bycatch economics is simple: swordfish and sharks equivalent to 30 percent incentives to waste not, want not. of earnings for these species avoid bycatch would pay dividends into the future. Protecting the World’s Oceans JUNE 2014 POPULAR DINNER THE COMPOUNDING PLATE DISCARDS COSTS OF BYCATCH WASTEDCASH WASTED VALUE $27.2 IN MILLIONS Red Snapper

$58.7 $45.5 Seatrout + Hundreds of hours sorting non-target fish and disentangling $6.7 $7.2 protected wildlife Red Grouper

PHOTOS BY NAOMI BLINICK/MARINE PHOTOBANK; OCEANA/CARLOS PEREZ; OCEANA/ENRIQUE PARDO

$6.7 Atlantic &

$3.9 USING ECONOMIC TOOLS SUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES IN THE U.S. are constantly striving to increase efficiency, reduce waste, cut costs and maximize the $4.6 market value of their products. Fisheries should take the same approach to reducing the wasteful practice of discarding. Benefits of $32.7 Tanner working to reduce bycatch include avoiding premature fishery closures, improving the efficiency of fishing operations or even avoiding Atlantic Sea + high costs of replacing ruined gear. A commitment to reducing bycatch by 50 percent during the next decade could amount to billions in Thousands of dollars of ruined gear due to entanglement savings. Fisheries managers in the U.S. must integrate economic tools into existing regulations. $3.4 Bluefin Tuna COUNT CAP CONTROL ACCOUNTING FOR BYCATCH BYCATCH LIMITS PAY DIVIDENDS ECONOMIC INCENTIVES $4.3 King Mackerel $1.3 Accurate and precise bycatch data are Bycatch limits are essential for ensuring CHANGE BEHAVIOR Yellowtail critical to ensuring that fish populations that vulnerable species maintain healthy Management approaches should use Flounder are not overfished, fishermen do not populations and that already depleted economic tools to ensure that bycatch unintentionally exceed annual quotas, fish populations can recover. Bycatch limits are not exceeded and that bycatch and that the industry adheres to sound caps have prompted fishermen to develop is reduced over time. Some of these $1.3 Swordfish management measures. Without accurate innovative gear modifications and real- methods could include incentive funding estimates of how much fishermen time, open-source reporting to collectively to transition to cleaner gear, bycatch taxes Chinook $1.4 are catching and discarding, fisheries ensure that those limits are not exceeded, to discourage waste, individual bycatch Millions of dead managers have no way of accounting for and they do not suffer the economic losses quota systems to share risk, and insurance hindering population recovery the negative consequences of bycatch, from premature fishery closures. bonds to improve accountability. Like all including the failure of juvenile fish to businesses, innovation within fisheries mature, off-the-books fishing on depleted is critical to remaining viable. Fisheries species, hindered recovery of diminished managers should utilize economic LOST REVENUE populations, opportunity costs and lost incentives where possible, and economic FROM BYCATCH MEANS = future revenue. penalties if necessary, in order to reduce the amount of bycatch waste in our fisheries. THE COST OF WASTE IN THE U.S. FISHING INDUSTRY 60,000 THE BOTTOM LINE $1 BILLION IN WASTED CASH IS TOO MUCH FEWER JOBS PER YEAR* $$$$ Wasting billions of pounds of fish is not economically or ecologically sensible. No single approach can work in all situations, but EACH SHIP REPRESENTS 1,000 FEWER JOBS combining existing management measures with economic incentives will be critical to changing fishing practices for the better and to ensure the economic viability of our nation’s fisheries for future generations. *According to figures in a recent Marine Policy article

GRAPHICS BY SYLVIA LIU For more information, please see the full report at www.oceana.org/wastedcash.