1. Economic impacts of marine debris encounters on commercial shrimping.
- Author
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Posadas BC, Sparks EL, Cunningham SR, Rodolfich AE, Wessel C, and Bradley R
- Subjects
- Animals, Environmental Monitoring methods, Seafood, Fisheries, Brachyura
- Abstract
The commercial shrimping industry is subjected to myriad stressors that have led to financial hardships among industry members. One of these stressors is marine debris; however, there is limited understanding of the type and magnitude of impacts. Quantitative methods of estimating the economic impacts of marine debris on the commercial shrimping industry were developed. From June to December 2019, participating shrimpers submitted 393 daily summaries, including shrimping activities, marine debris encounters, damages, and impacts. The impacts of marine debris encounters were assessed from reports of daily damages to fishing assets, daily lost fishing time, daily loss-catch ratios, and daily catch losses. The results of this study demonstrate substantial negative economic impacts on commercial shrimpers related to marine debris encounters. About 17 % of shrimp caught were lost due to marine debris encounters, resulting in foregone total sales and job impacts of $3.2 million and 33 jobs in shrimping and associated businesses., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)
- Published
- 2024
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