The Socio-Economic Value of the Shark-Diving Industry in Fiji

This report quantifies the economic revenues generated by shark diving and the distribution of these revenues to local stakeholders involved with the industry, including businesses, government, and the local community.

Shark-diving contributed US$42.2 million to the economy of Fiji, a sum composed of revenues generated by the industry combined with the taxes paid by shark-divers to the government.

The calculations for the economic revenue of shark-diving were made with three key pieces of information:

• Total number of divers visiting the country and the proportion of tourists engaged in dive activities from the Fiji International Visitor Survey 2009;
• All expenditures of the divers visiting Fiji primarily to engage in shark-diving activities (“dedicated shark-divers”) as revealed by our surveys; and
• The expenditures of divers who visited Fiji for reasons other than diving with sharks, but chose to engage in shark-diving while in the country (“casual shark-divers”) as revealed by our surveys. Expenditures of these divers were allocated as the proportion of their trip spent shark diving, rather than for their entire visit.

An increasing global market for shark fins has driven a shift in the exploitation of sharks from one of largely bycatch to a target fishery around the world. Up to 73 million sharks are killed each year for their fins, but this report adds to the growing knowledge that sharks are worth much more alive than dead.