Industry news

Fishing contributes billions to SA economy

Feb/ Mar 2009

Recreational fishing contributed R18.8-bn to the SA economy in 2007. This was the finding by Prof Marius Leibold and Dr Colin J van Zyl who have compiled the report, The Economic Impact of Sport & Recreational Angling in the Republic of South Africa 2007, that was released last year. As the name suggests, its aim is to scientifically determine the overall economic impact and the strategic value of sport and recreational angling in SA — the findings do not take into account commercial fishing and only deals with those anglers who do not earn an income or make a living from fishing.

The report was commissioned by a project team of the SA Deep Sea Angling Association (SADSAA).

All types of affected participant groups are included, from the business supply industries through the recreational angler, purist sportsperson, to the commercial tourism operator — to capture all economic impacts. Unfortunately little feedback was received from the fishing tackle industry.

The report covers the following sectors of SA angling:

» deep sea angling
» light tackle boat angling
» surf/shore angling
» underwater angling
» paddle craft angling
» bank angling
» fly fishing
» artificial lure
» bass angling
» carp angling
» match angling
» casting and surf casting

Economic impacts measure the changes within an economy due to particular activities, and are usually measured in income, expenditures, tax revenues and jobs. There are three standard components: direct, indirect and induced impacts:

» Direct impact is the economic impact result of initial expenditure, for example cost of a boat or fishing tackle. It includes both capital (fixed) costs and variable costs (expenditures) per annum.
» Indirect impact measures how sales in one industry affect the various industries providing supplies and support, for example the tackle shop purchasing supplies.
» Induced impact results from jobs created and salaries and wages paid by the directly and indirectly impacted industries.

The sum of the direct, indirect and induced effects is the total economic impact, while allowing for inflows (e.g. inward angling tourism and imported boats) and outflows (e.g. cross-border events and outward angling tourism), and with due care to avoid double counting of expenditures and impacts.

During 2007 the impact on the economy translated as following:

» Direct economic impact: R15.9-bn
» Indirect economic impact: R3.3-bn
» Induced effects: R1.2-bn
» Economic outflows: R1.6-bn
» Economic inflows: R2,5-m
» Total economic impact: R18.8-bn

Their findings concluded that 28 757, out of a total of 2.5-m participants in angling, are formal participants. A formal participant is someone who is a member or affiliated member of an organized club. Of the rest, the informal participants, 1.5-m are fresh water bank anglers, and 850 000 are surf/shore anglers. Deep sea angling’s ratio of formal:informal participants is 30:70. The 2.5-m particpants equate to close to 5% of SA’s population. The report defines a sport and recreational angler as a person who carries out angling activites at least once a year.

On the equipment side, the total estimated value of boats used for angling in SA during 2007 is R5.8-bn, of which R3.7-bn (64%) is used for deep sea angling. Fixed cost (durable) items total at R47,1-bn and depreciation is R6,12-bn (average of 13% p.a.). This includes the cost of boats, motor vehicles (4x4’s, bakkies, other motorcars), trailers, caravans and engines required.

The average annual expenditure per participant (depreciation on fixed costs p.a. plus annual variable costs) to participate in angling during 2007 is R7 520 per person per annum. This calculation is done by dividing R18.8-bn by the R2.5-m formal and informal particpants.

The report estimates that angling is roughly 15 times bigger in economic impact that big game hunting and even bigger than rugby and cricket in SA combined, including the economic inflows from international competitions. This has not only been seen in SA — the US has reported that the economic impact of angling there is bigger than that of golf and tennis combined.

Based on its findings the report estimates that the total economic impact of sport and recreational angling, including deep sea angling, is at least 80% larger than that of commercial fishing in SA — similar to what is the case internationally.

Type of participants and their economic impact

	Participants				Economic impact
	Formal	Semi-affiliated	Informal	Total	Direct impact	Indirect impact	Induced impact	Outflow	Total
Deep sea angling	7 191	2 297	22 372	31 860	R5.330-m	R1.330-m	R550-m	R420-m	R6.8-bn
Surf/ shore angling	3 500		850 000	853 500	R1.938-m	R567-m	R261-m	R232-m	R2.5-bn
Light tackle boat angling	1 500		225	1 725	R275-m	R27-m	R11-m	R28-m	R285-m
Fresh water bank angling	6 141		1.5-m	1 506 141	R3.739-m	R374-m	R149-m	R344-m	R3.9-bn
Fly fishing	4 500		40 500	45 000	R2.899-m	R710-m	R137-m	R266-m	R3.5-bn
Artificial lure angling	1 200		10 800	12 000	R268-m	R47-m	R7-m	R55-m	R267-m
Bass angling	2 000		18 000	20 000	R1.129-m	R225-m	R36-m	R186-m	R1.2-bn
Carp angling	280		2 520	2 800	R224-m	R52-m	R10-m	R26-m	R260-m
Match angling	80		10	90	R21-m	R2-m	R1-m	R2-m	R22-m
Underwater angling	68	932	9 000	10 000	R50-m	R5-m	R3-m	R6-m	R52-m