California's Ocean Economy - California Resources Agency - State ...

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assess: a) Landings and landed values have been unstable in the past and continue to be due
to large declines in the catch of particular species; b) absence of mandated standardized
employment and wage reporting for fish harvesting, preventing accurate accounting of the
real value of fish harvesting to the state. Much of the fishing industry is considered “selfemployed”
and does not fall under the federal mandates for reporting wages and numbers of
employees, as is the case in all other sectors with wages paid by companies. Hence, those
“self-employed” vessels fall outside the reported data requirements. Only those fishing
operations that report as regular private companies can be included in our dataset from the
Federal Government. Hence, reporting wages, employment, and GSP for the entire Living
Resources sector, when it is aggregated, and for the fish harvesting part of the sector, when
that is reported separately, is under-reported. There is no way to accurately know how many
fishermen there are in California nor how much they earn. The only amount that can be
estimated is that amount of money that the owner of the boat receives for the catch at the
dock, because legally, that must be reported by the buyer of the catch. This lack of standard
reporting has several implications, not the least of which is that there can be no benchmark
for regulators to determine the extent to which regulations or limits will impact the economy
of the fishermen.
Only state aggregated estimates for the value of the Living Resources sector can be found in
this chapter. Regional estimates have been left out. The evident domination of the Fish
Processing and the Hatcheries and Aquaculture industries by only a few companies per
region have resulted in the suppression of data at county and regional levels. This industry
concentration may reflect the steep decline in catch over the past decades, or they could be
the result of traditionally family-owned enterprises who captured the market long ago and
have remained successful. In either case, we cannot report the numbers by region.
When compared with the larger Ocean Economy sectors in California such as Tourism &
Transportation, the Living Resources market sector is relatively small. However, as a source
of food and employment, the commercial fishing industry is very important to California’s
coastal economy. Many activities are dependent on this industry, such as boat construction
and repair, brokerage, dock handling, trucking and other transportation, gear and rigging
stores, fish processing, and commercial seafood trade. In addition, the health of California’s
fisheries is integrally related to the health of California’s coastal waters, reflecting the
strength of offshore ecosystems. The size of the catch and its contribution to California’s
economy is only a part of its value. These other values are not captured in the market place,
but have far reaching effects on the sustainability of California’s coastal resources, which
fuels its flourishing coastal economy. The long-term sustainability of California’s fisheries
has additional values, or future values, because fisheries are a renewable resource that, if
well-managed, could sustain a viable industry for years to come. Poor management of
California’s fisheries would be an opportunity lost, taking a major source of revenue and
food from the citizens of California, costing Californians in future earnings and revenues.
While all Ocean Economy sectors but Tourism & Recreation declined during the decade
1990-2000, the Living Resources sector sustained the deepest cuts in relative terms. The real
losses are not calculable from the market values published in this chapter. The additional
values mentioned above need to be considered as well.
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