Economic aspects of fish stock accounting as a renewable marine natural capital: The Eastern Mediterranean continental shelf ecosystem as a case study

Abstract

Evidence of marine fish stock depletion in the eastern Mediterranean Sea due to the cumulative impact of anthropogenic activities has led to new fishing limits. In the first-ever evaluation of the Israeli fish stock and fisheries resource rents with the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) methodology, we apply a novel approach by combining results from scenarios of the Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) suite of models with SEEA to construct physical and monetary accounts for the marine fisheries in the Israeli Mediterranean. We analysed changes in fish stock biomass and stock value during two time periods and two scenarios: BAU and the new Israeli fishing regulations. This research is also the first attempt to quantify the economic impact of invasive species in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. We find that the value of the fish stock over the Israeli continental shelf was approximately NIS 592 million in 2010, mainly due to the trawl fishery. A similar analysis of invasive and native commercial functional groups indicates an increase in the economic value of native commercial groups and a reduction in the economic value of the invasive groups under the new fishery regulations.