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COVID-19 brought an abrupt end to buoyant cruise ship tourism, and the closure of national borders led to the demise of island tourism. Typically, in Vanuatu and Samoa, resorts, restaurants, and other components of the formal and informal sectors closed down. Much employment was lost (especially of women), creating development problems at every level, alongside a reversion to self-reliance, raising questions over the future of tourism industries and national and island economies.

This report updates and expands on the 2001 report on The Contribution of Fisheries to the Economies of Pacific Island Countries. The focus of that publication was the contribution of fishing to gross domestic product (GDP) and it provided an independent estimate of that contribution. In the present report, the scope is expanded to include Pacific Island territories, aquaculture and freshwater fisheries, and some important factors likely to affect the flow of benefits from fisheries in the future. Information on benefits from fisheries is provided for each of the 22 Pacific island countries and territories in terms of (i) recent annual production and value for six categories—coastal commercial fishing, coastal subsistence fishing, locally based offshore fishing, foreign-based offshore fishing, freshwater fishing, and aquaculture; (ii) official and reestimated contribution to GDP and exports; (iii) government revenue; (iv) employment; and (v) contribution to nutrition. Where data were available, comparisons are made between the situation in 1999 and 2007, the focus years of the 2001 study and the present study, respectively