The table compares various statistics regarding the world’s large-scale and small scale marine fishing industries, specifically focusing on employment, annual catches, financial costs, and fuel consumption.
Overall, it is clear that while the industrial sector process a higher total catch and incurs significantly higher operational costs and fuel usage, the small scale sector is a far larger employer. Additionally, local boats focus almost exculsively on food production, whereas industrial ships contribute heavily on industrial processing.
In terms of employment and catch, the small-scale industry employs approximately 12 million people, which is 24 times more than the 500,000 workers in the large-scale sector. However, large-scale ships yeild a higher total annual catch, consisting of 29 million tonnes for food and 22 million tonnes for industrial processing. In contrast, boats produce a comparable 24 million tonnes for food but contribute almost nothing to industrial processing.
Regarding resources and costs, the disparity is even more pronounced. The capital cost of a single job in the industrial sector ranges from $30,000 to $300,000, whereas a job in the small scale sector costs significantly less, between $250 and $2,500. Similarly, large-scale fishing is much more fuel-intensive, consuming between 14 and 19 million tonnes of fuel oil annually, compared to a mere 1.5 to 1.8 million tonnes used by local boats.