Fisheries subsidies

Better policy decisions depend on good data. Since 2010, the OECD’s Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) database has collected information on government support to capture fisheries, as well as payments made by the fishing sector to public finances. Covering 41 OECD countries and other large fishing nations (which together account for 69% of global capture fisheries production by volume), it allows policy makers and others to see how policies have evolved over time and compare their countries with others. 

Fisheries support derives from a range of policies, which vary both over time and across countries. For example, in 2020-22, 49% of support in OECD countries was granted through management, monitoring, control and surveillance, while, in other fishing nations covered by the FSE, this type of support represented only 8% of government spending. Over the same period, support to fisheries amounted to USD 5 722 per fisher in OECD countries and USD 283 per fisher in other fishing nations.

If support policies make fishing more profitable, and fisheries are not effectively regulated, monitored, and controlled, there is a risk support encourages unsustainable and illegal fishing, and ends up damaging fish stocks. 

The OECD has developed a tool to help governments assess the risk that their support policies may present to fish stock health. This matrix classifies types of fisheries support based on the level of risk they may pose to fishery sustainability and outlines the factors that can mitigate or magnify that risk: the quality of management of the recipient fisheries; the health of the fish stocks they target; and the conditions to be eligible for support. 

The tool can be used by policy makers to reform their policy mix towards less risk either by moving away from the riskier policies or by improving fisheries management and enforcement, and better targeting support to well-managed sustainable fisheries.