The table illustrates differences between large-scale and small-scale fishing based on 8 characteristics.
Overall, it can be seen that the most significant difference is the number of employed people, small-scale fishing requires far more fishermen than large-scale. Also, it should be noticed that, while the annual catch for human consumption is almost similar in 2 spheres, the annual catch for industrial purposes differs completely.
A more detailed look at the table reveals that the number of employed fishermen in small-scale fishing is about 24 times higher than in large-scale (12 million people vs 500 thousand). Concerning the capital cost of each work on fishing vessels, the cost differs remarkably (250-2500 dollars for small vessels compared to 30,000-300,000 dollars for large ones). Also, it can be seen that large ships consume approximately 14-19 million tons annually, while small ships spend about 1-2,5 million tons. Moreover, small-scale fishing is far more economical in terms of fuel consumption per tonne of fish catch.
As for investments, it can be noticed that, while large-scale fishing employs approximately 5 to 30 fishermen for each 1 million dollars spent, small-scale fishing hires about 500 to 4000 workers for the same amount of money.
Finally, it is noticeable that large-scale fishing throws out around 6-16 million tonnes of marine catch each year. In contrast, there is almost no discards from small-scale fishing.