IV-170 



An entire complex of commerce and industry can rest upon one 

 primary producing industry such as commercial fishing, and Figure 

 IV. 3.1 illustrates in a very simple fashion soma of the more direct 

 impacts of commercial fishing on the economy. Each time the basic 

 product changes hands it generates economic activity and gains in 

 value until by the time it 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 such as those given in Table IV. 3.4 and 

 Table IV. 3. 5. 



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 impossible to say. Case studies discussed later in this 

 chapter 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. 



Consumption of both edible and industrial fish products continues 

 to increase, but the part of the consumption supplied by domestic 

 fishermen continues to decrease. Imports represented 82 per cent 



