A new study was released by the Pew Environment Group reveals significant potential financial benefits of rebuilding four fish species in the Mid-Atlantic: summer flounder, black sea bass, butterfish and bluefish. The study revealed that rebuilding these stocks could mint billion of dollars for the coastal communities.
The report, Investing in Our Future: The Economic Case for Rebuilding Mid-Atlantic Fish Populations, throws light on a new analysis and estimates direct financial benefits by comparing status quo management of four particular fish species with what would have happened, if those populations had been rebuilt by 2007.
According to the report rebuilding summer flounder, black sea bass, butterfish and bluefish populations by 2007 would have generated an additional $570 million per year in direct economic benefits in perpetuity. In five years, that number would amount to approximately $2.85 billion.
Dr. John M. Gates, report author and professor emeritus, Departments of Economics, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island, comments that results from this study provide strong analytical evidence that there is significant value in rebuilding fish populations and lost financial benefits from delayed action. He added that delays in rebuilding translate to lost opportunities for commercial and recreational fishermen to catch the maximum amount of fish that can sustainably be taken from a population.
