A report released today 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 report, Investing in Our Future: The Economic Case for Rebuilding Mid-Atlantic Fish Populations, provides 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. The report finds that 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.
“Results from this study provide strong analytical evidence that there is significant value in rebuilding fish populations and lost financial benefits from delayed action,” said Dr. John M. Gates, report author and professor emeritus, Departments of Economics, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, University of Rhode Island. “It’s important to note that the primary, direct benefits represent a conservative estimate and, if related economic benefits had been included, the result would likely expand well beyond the figures estimated in this study.”