Marine fisheries contribute to the global economy, from the catching of fish to the provision of support services for the fishing industry. A general lack of data and uncertainty about the level of employment in marine fisheries can lead to underestimation of fishing effort and hence overexploited fisheries, or result in inaccurate projections of economic and societal costs and benefits.

To address this gap, Rashid Sumaila, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, and Lydia Teh compiled a database of marine fisheries employment for 144 coastal nations. They focused on estimating jobs in the small-scale fishing sector. In total, they estimated that 260 ± 6 million people are involved in global marine fisheries, encompassing full-time and part-time jobs in the direct and indirect sectors, with 22 ± 0.45 million of those being small-scale fishers. This is equivalent to 203 ± 34 million full-time equivalent jobs. Study results can be used to improve management decision making and highlight the need to improve monitoring and reporting of the number of people employed in marine fisheries globally. The results are published in the 7 December 2011 issue of Fish and Fisheries.

Read the full paper here. Find out more information and a graphical representation of  the study's key findings here.