What is the recorded economic cost of alien invasive fishes worldwide?

Abstract

Invasive alien fishes have caused pernicious ecological impacts on aquatic ecosystems. However, there has not been a global appraisal of associated economic impacts. Here, we compiled reported economic impacts of invasive alien fishes using the most comprehensive global database of invasion costs (InvaCost). We analyze how fish invasion costs are distributed geographically and temporally, as well as which socioeconomic sectors are most impacted. Fish invasions have caused the economic loss of at least US$32.8 billion globally (2017 value), from only 26 reported species (of 128 known invasive alien fish species). North America had the highest costs (> 99%), followed by Europe and Asia, with no costs reported in Africa, Oceania nor South America. Very few costs from invasive fish in the marine realm were reported (0.1%). Most costs are related to resource damages and losses (97%), with relatively little spent on management; mainly impacting the fisheries sector (93%). However, when only considering empirically observed costs (without predictions), most costs were incurred by authorities and stakeholders through management, indicating that damage costs from invasive fishes are often extrapolated and/or difficult to quantify. Fish invasion costs increase markedly over time, from US$0.57 billion/year in the 1980s to US$1 billion/year in the 2000s. Fish invasions have been relatively well studied; however, economic costs have been lower than expected based on overall numbers of alien species. Accordingly, although costs are increasing, improved reporting is required to better understand how fish invasion costs are distributed across time, space and economic sectors.

Global economic costs of herpetofauna invasions

“…The lack of reported costs found for the vast majority of reported alien species corroborates other studies at various spatial and taxonomic scales, including for the United Kingdom 37 , Singapore and Southeast Asia 35 , fishes 49 , and ants 50 , among others. Concerning sectors of economic activity for amphibians, most costs impacted authorities-stakeholders.…”

Economic costs of invasive species in Germany

“…For example, non-native fish species listed in the German Blacklist (Essl et al 2011) were missing entirely, indicating a profound lack of cost information. Alien fish species, in particular, are known to be very costly in other regions, such as North America (Haubrock et al 2021b). Other regional studies of the InvaCost database have similarly found that the number of species with recorded costs represent a very small percentage of known alien species.…”

Recent advances in availability and synthesis of the economic costs of biological invasions

“…2). Taxonomic studies can be 'nested' at different scales, such as analyses of aquatic invaders as a whole followed by a detailed assessment for invasive fish (Haubrock et al 2022), or a compilation of costs of terrestrial invertebrates (Renault et al 2022a) followed by a specific assessment of ants . Such distinctions are useful because, while a higher level of classification can reveal the general state of knowledge, different management strategies are often needed for specific taxonomic groups, and organisations/stakeholders can have particular taxonomic foci.…”