Small- versus large-scale fishing operations in New England, USA

Most fishing fleets are composed of a diverse range of vessel types and sizes. The different types of fishing operations may vary significantly in their ability to meet policy goals and hence, in order to plan for optimal resource use, we need to know more about the overall performance of the different sectors in a fishing fleet.

This paper compares small and large-scale fishing operations in New England, USA, in terms of a number of socioeconomic and environmental parameters, including employment, total landings, number of individual fishing units, fuel consumption, discard rates, and the amount of catch used for direct human consumption.

The analysis is based on an extensive data set obtained from several databases hosted by the National Marine Fisheries Service, USA, and the fishing fleet was divided into small and large-scale according to a set of criteria based on vessel size, gear type, and value of catch.The results suggest that in New England, the small-scale fishing sector employs more people per landed tonne, uses more vessels, and achieves a higher value per landed tonne than their large-scale counterpart.

In addition, a much greater proportion of the small-scale sector's catch is used for direct human consumption. Data on by-catch and fuel use are inconclusive as they are based on observer data, which are not representative of the entire fishery and especially under-reports for the small-scale fishing operations.

However, it appears that small-scale fisheries may have a lower rate of by-catch, but that large-scale fisheries – at least for the majority of gear types – use less fuel per landed tonne than the small-scale operations. Similar results have been found in analogous comparisons fishing fleets in other countries.

The evidence therefore suggests that while large-scale fisheries may perform better in terms of fuel efficiency and other variables, the small-scale fisheries may be better positioned to meet several policy objectives such as creating employment, maximizing the revenue for each tonne of fish removed from the ocean, maximizing the amount of catch that is used for direct human consumption, and perhaps minimizing by-catch.