The Global Contribution of Forage Fish to Marine Fisheries Value

Forage fish play a pivotal role in marine ecosystems and economies worldwide by sustaining many predators and fisheries directly and indirectly. We estimated the global forage fish contributions to marine ecosystems through a synthesis of 72 published Ecopath models from around the world. Three distinct contributions of forage fish were examined: 1) the support service of forage fish to predators in marine ecosystems, 2) the total catch and value of forage fisheries, and 3) the support service of forage fish to the catch and value of other commercially targeted predators. Forage fish use and value varied by latitude and ecosystem type, and exhibited patterns across these groups. Forage fish supported many kinds of predators, including fish, seabirds, marine mammals and squid. Predators with diets consisting of more than 50% forage fish were found in 70% of the models while 28% had at least one predator whose diet exceeded 75% forage fish. Overall, forage fish contribute a total of about $16.9 billion USD to global fisheries values annually, i.e. 20% of the global ex-vessel catch values of all marine fisheries combined. While the global catch value of forage fisheries was $5.6 billion, fisheries supported by forage fish were more than twice as valuable ($11.3 billion). These estimates provide important information for evaluating the trade-offs of various uses of forage fish across ecosystem types, latitudes, and globally. Although we did not estimate a monetary value for supportive contributions unrelated to fisheries, these could add substantially to the global value of forage fishes.