Study Confirms Fishery Remains Leading Employer in Nova Scotia

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT--Study Confirms Fishery Remains Leading Employer in Nova Scotia

NOTE TO EDITORS: Following is a feature release outlining findings in The Economic Value of the Nova Scotia Ocean Sector, a study prepared by Gardner Pinfold Consulting Economists, as they relate to the fisheries.

A new study ranks Nova Scotia's fishery as the leading employer among industries that make their livelihood from the sea.

Nova Scotia's ocean sector had an overall $4-billion impact on the province's economy as measured in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001. The contribution of fish harvesting and processing to that figure has risen gradually over the past decade, to $986 million in 2001.

The figures are contained in The Economic Value of the Nova Scotia Ocean Sector, a study prepared by Gardner Pinfold Consulting Economists for the federal and provincial governments and the Nova Scotia Fisheries Sector Council. The study covers the period 1996-2001 and was released Monday, April 11.

By 2001, the importance of fish harvesting by the province's 5,450 vessels to the Nova Scotia economy had risen to about $361 million, from $214 million in 1996. Household income from harvesting rose from $128 million to almost $185 million during the same period. The study's authors determined that, with stability in the number of harvesters at around 7,500, average incomes rose from about $17,000 to about $25,000 per year.

When you include spin-off activity, which occurs primarily in Nova Scotia's rural communities, the fishing industry generated about $672 million in household income, or 31.3 per cent of the province's ocean-sector total.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Nova Scotia's Office of Economic Development, and numerous other departments will be using the results of the study to help make decisions about future policy directions relating to Nova Scotia's ocean industries.

"I am pleased to see the fishing industry growing in new areas so that fisheries will remain an important component of the Nova Scotia economy, employing literally thousands of people," said Economic Development Minister Ernest Fage.

The study identified a positive economic upswing in sectors like shellfish harvesting, which includes lobster, scallop snow crab and shrimp. Among the other encouraging trends noted by the study, fisheries continues to be the province's leading source of export earnings.

The importance of the fishing industry (including processing) to Nova Scotia is clear: it leads all other sectors in employment and ranks second to National Defence in income impact, according to the study's authors.

The authors found that better conditions in the fishery followed the collapse of the groundfishery and lower earnings of the 1990s. By 2000, the shift was being made from haddock and cod, they said, and vessel owners began responding to improved shellfish landings and better markets by replacing vessels and investing in additional ones.

The study is available on the website at www.gov.ns.ca/econ/publications/oceanresources .