The table given compares and illustrates the data for the world’s large-scale and small-scale sea fishing industries. It shows the differences based on how many employees were involved, how much fish was caught annually, the annual cost per capita for each worker and the amount of fuel consumed. The comparison is made between big-scale industrial ships and small-scale fishing boats, with all figures presented on an annual basis.
Looking at the illustration, it is immediately evident that small-scale fishing boats recorded the highest figure in terms of employment, whereas the opposite was true for fuel consumption and industrial processing, which were dominated by large-scale ships. Additionally, the gap between the two sectors was clear across most categories shown in the table.
In terms of employment, small-scale fishing dominated the table with approximately 120 million workers, which was significantly higher than the figure of about 500 thousand employees in the large-scale industry. Regarding annual food catch, big-scale industrial ships recorded around 29 million tonnes, compared with a slightly lower figure of 24 million tonnes for small fishing boats. Meanwhile, only large-scale fishing was involved in industrial processing, producing 22 million tonnes, while no such activity was reported for the small-scale sector.
Turning to cost and fuel consumption, large-scale fishing continued to register higher figures. The annual cost per employee in this sector ranged from 25,000 to 350,000, whereas workers in small-scale fishing earned between 200 and 3,000 per year. Similarly, each industrial vessel consumed approximately 65,000 gallons of fuel annually, which was considerably higher than the 8,500 gallons used by a small fishing boat.