ABSTRACT
The practice by governments of providing financial support, whether directly or indirectly, to the fishing sector is known as fisheries subsidies. This chapter presents latest research results that show that as little as 16 per cent of the total global fisheries subsidies are given to the world's small-scale fisheries sector, even though they land an estimated 50 per cent of total global fish landings and employ about 90 per cent of fishing vessels. Hence, fisheries subsidies actually undermine the competitiveness of this vitally important fishing sector in terms of supporting the livelihoods of the world's economically vulnerable coastal communities. The chapter also presents a simple application of bioeconomics to fisheries subsidies with the goal of explaining why people should care that the governments give away taxpayers' money as fisheries subsidies, especially subsidies that stimulate overcapacity and overfishing.
