11-41 



Commercial Fishing 



An entire complex of commerce and Industry can rest upon one primary 

 producing industry such as commercial fishing. Each time the basic 

 product changes hands 1t generates economic activity and gains in 

 value until by the time 1t reaches the ultimate consumer, its price 

 may be many times what the fisherman was paid for It. The effect 

 of such "value multiplier" factors will be such as to make the 

 actual values of specific commercial fisheries several times the 

 landed values. 



Thus, the 438 million dollars received by United States fishermen in 

 1967 probably represents a total input to estuarine zone economic 

 activity of over one billion dollars; exactly how much it is impossi- 

 ble to say. Case studies assign multiplier values of about three 

 and four to commercial fishery landing values, but the magnitudes 

 of such multipliers depend on the structure of the local economy as 

 well as on other factors and generalities are likely to be misleading. 



The relationship of the estuarine zone and commercial fishing cannot 

 be expressed by any simple economic index. The importance of 

 commercial fishing in the estuarine zone 1s related economically 

 not only to estuarine habitat, but also to transportation, commerce, 

 food processing, and aquaculture. 



