Investing in Our Future: The Economic Case for Rebuilding Mid-Atlantic Fish Populations

This report by the Pew Trust Environmental Group prepared by John M. Gates dated 2009 provides a new analysis of the potential economic benefits of rebuilding depleted fish populations in the Mid-Atlantic. The study estimates direct economic benefits by comparing status quo management scenarios with scenarios where populations would have been rebuilt by 2007.

For both commercial and recreational fishing sectors, rebuilding populations of black
sea bass, bluefish, butterfish and summer flounder by 2007 would have generated an
additional $570 million per year in perpetuity in direct economic benefits.