we can t go on like this the price we get for the fish doesn t even cover our outlays but taxpayers in oecd countries also pay six billion dollars a year in financial transfers to the fishing industry and worldwide the figure could be three times that we say could because it s hard to get precise figures on subsidies next we ll examine the economic and other impacts on the fishing industry and the political difficulties in reforming them but first we ll look at why subsidies attract so much attention