MEY = MSY

It has been generally accepted for more than half a century that the fishing sector stood to gain from managing fisheries at the effort level producing maximum economic yield (MEY) rather than at the higher effort level producing maximum sustainable yield (MSY). However, the acceptance is built on evaluating only the revenue and cost structure for the fishing fleet, not for the overall fishing sector including processing, distribution and marketing of fish products. Considering these links of the fish value chain moves the MEY-level closer to, but slightly below the MSY-level. For society as a whole, this means that MSY is the more appropriate target reference level.