Impacts on CPUE from vessel fleet composition changes in an Australian lobster (Jasus edwardsii) fishery

The Australian Victorian Western Zone rock lobster fishery is assessed using standardised catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE). Nominal CPUE declined over 1978–2009, but this underrepresents the estimated decline in abundance, and since 2009 standardised CPUE rose notably less than nominal CPUE. This study identified vessel as a key factor that explains the discrepancy between nominal and standardised CPUE. The composition of the fleet changed since 2009, under the pressure of constraining total allowable catch quotas, with vessels exiting the fishery having substantially lower estimated catchability, which increased the average catchability of the remaining fleet. New diagnostic indices were constructed to quantify discrepancies between trends in nominal and standardised CPUE that assisted in identifying periods during which both catchability and fleet composition changed.     

Fleet communication to abate fisheries bycatch

Fleet communication systems report near real-time observations of bycatch hotspots to enable a fishery to operate as a coordinated “One Fleet” to substantially reduce fleet-wide capture of protected bycatch species. This benefits the bycatch species per se, reduces waste, and can provide economic benefits to industry by reducing risk of exceeding bycatch thresholds and causing future declines in target species catch levels. We describe case studies of fleet communication programs of the US North Atlantic longline swordfish fishery, US North Pacific and Alaska trawl fisheries, and US Alaska demersal longline fisheries, and identify alternative fleet communication program designs to reduce fisheries bycatch. Evidence supports the inference that these three fleet communication programs substantially reduced fisheries bycatch and provided economic benefits that greatly outweighed operational costs. Fleet communication may be appropriate in fisheries where there are strong economic incentives to reduce bycatch, interactions with bycatch species are rare events, adequate onboard observer coverage exists, and for large fleets, vessels are represented by a fishery association.     

Global assessment of the European Union fishing fleet: An update

This paper provides a global analysis of recent trends in the EU fishing fleet. Analysis of the capital productivity, labour rates, and economic benefits of the fleet revealed that considerable replacement of fishermen by better technology and well-equipped vessels occurred between 1990 and 2006. The analysis confirms that the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) has been ineffective in reducing fishing capacity. In addition, the changes in capacity that occurred in this time interval differed among the different sectors of the fleet. Some members of the high sea fishing fleet increased their capacity (range 11–57%), and the deep-sea sector, which has greater tonnage and fishing power, increased its fishing capacity by 34–44%. These results confirm the ineffectiveness of the CFP in reducing overcapacity and illustrate the continuing threat of overcapacity to the long-term sustainability of fishery resources.     

Measures of fishing fleet diversity in the New England groundfish fishery

After 16 years under a limited access program with effort controls, the New England groundfish fishery transitioned to a catch share management system in 2010. For much of its earlier management history, issues related to fishing capacity were paramount as effort controls were increasingly restrictive to meet biological objectives. As the size of the active fleet declined from over 1000 vessels from 1994 to 2001 to less than 400 vessels in 2012, the management concern shifted to fleet diversity. Fleet diversity has been cast in terms of vessels based on characteristics such as size, gear, and region rather than their share in landings or economic value. Measuring fleet diversity with indices commonly used in the biodiversity literature such as richness, effective diversity based on the Shannon index, and evenness appears appropriate for this context. In this paper these indices were applied to measure changes in diversity of the active New England groundfish fleet from 1996 to 2012. Fleet diversity as measured by the Shannon Index has declined by approximately 35% from 1996 to 2012, but has remained relatively stable since 2007. Forty vessel types were present in all 17 years, which accounted for about 85% of active groundfish vessels and over 90% of total groundfish landings in all years. Even though the fleet size and overall diversity have declined the “core” groundfish fleet remains stable.     

Regional fish stock management: A model for North-West Africa

Development of a bio-economic model for applications in managing an important north African fishery is reported in this article. The model is applied through identification of baseline conditions and analysis of two alternative fishery management plans; limiting the number of vessels and instituting a closed season. Several key assumptions relative to biological and fleet variables are necessarily made, since in some areas historical data are limited. However, results strongly suggest that rents to resource owners (African coastal countries) can be substantially increased by either method of limiting access to the fishery and by licensing vessels and fishermen.     

The North East Atlantic albacore fishery: A Cornish crisis of confidence

Fishing vessels from Cornwall, England entered the albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga, Bonnaterre, 1788) fishery using drift-nets in the Bay of Biscay in 1991, the prime motivation for this being concern over excess capacity and quota limitations in existing local fisheries. Although the albacore fishery has made a contribution to the region's prosperity and has reduced pressure other fish stocks, many operators who invested in the necessary fishing equipment have withdrawn their vessels after only one or two seasons. Those staying in the fishery have been able to do so only because of profitability for vessels with very low overheads. Two sources have undermined confidence in the fishery amongst Cornish fishermen; new legislation which evolved from inappropriate, extra-regional sources and conflict between the fishing fleets from different European countries due to its ‘High Seas’ location. The political significance of the fishery is disproportionate to its size and impact on the environment and has meant that the Cornish albacore fleet may cease to exist.     

The tragedy of soft choices: capacity accumulation and lopsided allocation in the Norwegian coastal cod fishery

Following years of reduced cod stocks and the build up of capture capacity in the coastal fleet, the Norwegian government implemented “access closure” and “vessel quotas” at the end of the 1980s, in order to bring capture capacity under control. However, despite these rather powerful policy tools, the capacity of the Norwegian cod fishery continued to increase during the 1990s. This paper outlines the processes that led to this increase in capture capacity and to the accumulation of vessels in the large size segments of the coastal fleet, the exact opposite result of that intended by the introduction of the fisheries policy. We present two main factors to explain these trends: Firstly, the expansion in quota factors due to exchange or renewal of vessels. This provides vessel-owners with more “vessel-meters” which are equivalent to an increased share of total quota under the maximal quota regulations. This situation implies a redistribution of resources from smaller to larger vessels. Secondly, improved efficiency of technology aboard the vessels makes the vessels more efficient as capture machines. The effect of these changes remains hidden as long as the total stock increases, which was the situation from the introduction of the new regime and until the late 1990s. When the stock once again declined, the effect of the capacity build-up was exposed. A decade of soft choices, adjustments, and adaptations has used up the available solutions. New regulations and a new policy are now required.     

The social cost of fishery subsidy reforms

This paper analyzes the impact of reducing fisheries subsidies in a general equilibrium model for a fishery with heterogeneous vessels. It considers the impact of the stock effect, which determines the participation of vessels in a likely increased stock abundance. In equilibrium, the productivity of the fleet is endogenous as it depends on the stock of fish along the equilibrium path. The model concludes that any impact of a subsidy drop will depend on the stock effect. If that effect is large, fishing firms will benefit from the stock recovery and the elimination of the subsidy will increase future returns on investment. The model is particularised to industrial shrimp fisheries in Mexico. It is shown that the complete elimination of a subsidy increases biomass, capitalisation, marginal productivity, and consumption and reduces inequality when the effect of the induced increase in the stock is considered. However, if that effect is not considered, capital and consumption decrease, and inequality and hence, the social costs of a subsidy drop, increase.     

Improving fleet efficiency to maximise economic yield in a Western Australian prawn fishery

The Shark Bay trawl fishery is Western Australia's most valuable prawn fishery (worth AUD$25 million in 2014). The 18-vessel fleet targets western king prawns (Penaeus latisulcatus), brown tiger prawns (P. esculentus) and also retains saucer scallops (Ylistrum balloti) and blue swimmer crabs (Portunus armatus). Increased fuel prices, falling prawn prices and lower catches of other species, following extreme environmental events, have impacted fishery profits. A biomass dynamics model with an economic component indicated that total revenue levels start to decline when annual effort increases beyond ~ 200 fishing days per boat. Annual effort required to achieve MEY, when based solely on prawn fishing, is 115–150 days per boat after accounting for fixed and variable fishing costs and annual fishing efficiency increases of 1–2%. From 2007–2014, the adjusted effort was 188–192 days per boat. Fishing occurred between March and November during 7–8 fishing periods, separated by 5–8 day (low catchability) moon closure periods. An empirical daily profit assessment (2007–2015), accounting for recruitment variation, daily prawn size compositions, monthly market prices for different prawn species and sizes, and daily fishing costs, showed vessels made profits on ~ 115–160 days and losses on ~ 15–55 days per year, when fishing occurred near the full moon. The fishery benefitted in 2013–2015 by starting later in the year and better targeting within-season effort. This management strategy within the effort-control framework, which improved profitability, maintained higher spawning stocks and reduced ecosystem fishing impacts, has wider application in prawn fishery management.     

Second-guessing uncertainty: Scenario planning for management of the Indian Ocean tuna purse seine fishery

An important task of natural resource management is deciding amongst alternative policy options, including how interventions will affect the dynamics of resource exploitation. Yet predicting the behaviour of natural resource users in complex, changeable systems presents a significant challenge for managers. Scenario planning, which involves thinking creatively about how a socio-ecological system might develop under a set of possible futures, was used to explore uncertainties in the future of the Indian Ocean tuna purse seine fishery. This exercise stimulated thinking on how key social, economic and environmental conditions that influence fleet behaviour may change in the future, and how these changes might affect the dynamics of fishing effort. Three storylines were explored: an increase in marine protection, growing consumer preference for sustainable seafood, and depletion of tuna stocks. Comparing across several possible future scenarios, a number of critical aspects of fleet behaviour were identified that should be important considerations for fishery managers, but which are currently poorly understood. These included a switch in fishing practices, reallocation of effort in space, investment in new vessels and exit from the fishery. Recommendations for future management interventions in the Indian Ocean were offered, along with suggestions for research needed to reduce management uncertainty.     

The profitability of the Spanish swordfish fleet in the North Atlantic

Our aim is to analyse the profitability of the Spanish swordfish fleet in the North Atlantic on the basis of the estimate of the gross profit per standard vessel, the average yield and the investment payback period (PP). The swordfish fleet has grown over the last decade to become the main producer in this fishery and one of the most stable fleets of all the Spanish fisheries. The results obtained show increases in profit per vessel, although there was a slight decrease in the final year studied, relatively high rates of return and PP shorter than the average life of one of the fleet's standard vessels.     

Measuring fishery profitability: An index number approach

Tracking the financial well-being of vessels that depend on a marine fishery resource is an important function of regulators. This research demonstrates how simple indices can be constructed and utilized to track the economic well-being of vessels operating in the Northeast (USA) Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery. The indices, which use both public and private data, can separately track trends in inputs, outputs, and prices. For the Northeast Multispecies Fishery, the indices reveal that the economic well-being of the groundfish fleet has improved under catch share management through gains in productivity.     

Distributional effects of property rights: Transitions in the Atlantic Herring fishery

A principal challenge in developing any fishery management plan is the allocation of benefits and costs among participants in the fishery. This process is further complicated by imperfect information about future market demand and limited ability to predict the consequences of regulatory change. This paper offers a new approach to policymakers, using econometric analysis to simulate the potential impact of individual tradable quotas (ITQs) in a fishery. We compare the distribution of harvest across participants in the Atlantic Herring fishery under the current open access regime and under a potential ITQ regime, assuming two different levels of future demand. Our results show that production efficiency varies by vessel gear, home-port and relationship with buyers. Some of the predicted consequences of ITQs are: vessels from Massachusetts will gain share relative to those from Maine; trawlers will gain share relative to purse seine vessels; and independent vessels will lose share relative to vessels that are primarily contracted to specific processors or bait companies. These results will help policymakers in developing future management plans for the herring fishery. More generally, this analytical approach can help regulators in any fishery assess the potential impact of alternative policy changes under alternative future demand scenarios.     

Factors that influence the entry–exit decision and intensity of participation of fishing fleet for the Galapagos lobster fishery

The Galapagos Islands are a prime example of a place where fishery management policies have been established without first understanding the behavior of fishermen. Since the creation of the Galapagos Marine Reserve in 1998, there has not been a single study in the archipelago that investigates fishing behavior and the factors affecting this behavior. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by describing and analyzing the decisions of the fishing fleet for the red spiny lobster fishery. It focuses on factors that affect the short-term decisions regarding both participation and intensity of participation in the lobster fishery. This paper finds that the fishing fleet in the Galapagos Islands behaves as profit maximizing firms, because they consider all the benefits and costs that affect both their participation decision as well as their decision about how frequently to be active after they have decided to participate. The results also show that there is a large latent effort in the lobster fisheries that could threaten the sustainability of any initiatives aimed at increasing catchability, prices, or markets. It is expected that this analysis will be valuable to policy makers when designing or improving the management plans for Galapagos fisheries.     

The rise and fall of the Irish orange roughy fishery: An economic analysis

An Irish commercial fishery for orange roughy began in the Northeast Atlantic in 2001 with the assistance of government grants. The fishery began as an open access, non-quota fishery. The rapid boom and bust of many deep water fisheries was experienced. Landings peaked in 2002 and then dropped significantly the following year. Many vessels were forced out of the fishery due to high costs and rapidly declining stocks. By 2005 the fishery was largely closed. Applying a bioeconomic analysis, this paper shows why the fishery no longer exists and discusses both the external and opportunity costs of the fishery. A bioeconomic model is applied to the available data to assess the open access effort and harvest with and without government grant aid. The results suggest that in the absence of subsidies, deep water trawling would not have been viable. In addition to the financial costs such as high fuel consumption, there are also externalities associated with deep water trawling. Orange roughy is closely associated with deep water ecosystems such as seamounts and cold water corals. This paper examines the costs of damage to cold water corals. These costs include the loss of fish habitats and lost future use and preservation values.     

Enhancing the performance of quota managed fisheries using seasonality information: The case of the Portuguese artisanal dredge fleet

Several fisheries across the world are managed by a quota regime. These quotas can be set yearly, monthly, weekly or daily. However, for some fish species demand seasonality may occur, which should be taken into consideration in the establishment of the quota (especially in those fisheries managed by daily or monthly quotas). This would allow fishermen to catch more fish at times of the year with higher demand in detriment of periods when demand is low. The present work investigates the existence of demand seasonality for bivalves from the artisanal dredge fleet. This fleet operates along the entire coast of the Portugal mainland. The analysis of fleets' revenue efficiency is assessed with Data Envelopment Analysis models, and the monthly seasonality effects on the revenue efficiency were tested using a Tobit regression. The results revealed that on the South coast there is a strong demand in the summer whereas on the western coast (northwest and southwest fishing areas) demand increases during Christmas and New Year festivities. Since this fishery is managed by weekly/daily quotas, it is proposed that these quotas should be redistributed in order to adjust them to periods of higher demand, thereby increasing the profitability of the vessels. The approach followed could be applied to similar fisheries worldwide.     

Can vessel buybacks pay off: An evaluation of an industry funded fishing vessel buyback

Fishing vessel and permit buyback programs have been implemented to reduce excess capacity and improve profitability in a number of fisheries around the world. These programs are generally publicly funded, but in a few cases they have been financed by loans to be paid back by the remaining fleet. In 2003, a buyback permanently removed 91 vessels and 239 fishing permits from the Pacific groundfish trawl fishery and associated corollary fisheries of Dungeness crab and pink shrimp. The buyback was financed with $10 million in public funding and a $36 million loan to be repaid over 30 years with fees on landings. In the same year, a control date was set for catch share program in the groundfish trawl fishery. When the catch share program was implemented in 2011, the permit owners that remained in the fishery after the buyback were allocated the quota shares that would otherwise have been issued to the permits bought back in 2003. Estimates of the annual profits generated by this quota are compared to the cost of servicing the buyback loan. The results provide evidence that a buyback program, when implemented in conjunction with catch shares, can enable a sustained increase in profitability for the remaining vessels sufficient to justify its cost. However, using landings taxes as the mechanism to repay the loan may result in a mismatch between those who benefit from and pay for the buyback.     

IFQs and total factor productivity changes: The case of the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery

This study investigates changes in the total factor productivity (TFP) and identifies the main sources of TFP growth following the adoption of an individual fishing quota (IFQ) program in the Gulf of Mexico red snapper commercial fishery. Utilizing an unbalanced panel of 722 vertical line vessels Malmquist indices were derived from an output-oriented stochastic distance frontier. The analysis shows that the IFQ program had a positive impact on the productivity of the fleet and that most of the productivity gains were due to improvements in technical efficiency. The study also finds that changes in technical efficiency were time variant suggesting that the exit of the less efficient vessels and easing of command and control regulations such as trip limits and short fishing seasons were responsible for most of these gains. Changes in the exploitable biomass of red snapper were found to have a moderate impact on productivity growth whereas the impact of technological progress was minimal.     

Choosing a fishery’s governance structure using data poor methods

Multi-species fisheries are complex to manage and the ability to develop an appropriate governance structure is often seriously impeded because trading between sustainability objectives at the species level, economic objectives at the fleet level, and social objectives at the community scale, is complex. Many of these fisheries also tend to have a mix of information, with stock assessments available for some species and almost no information on other species. The fleets themselves comprise fishers from small family enterprises to large vertically integrated businesses. The Queensland trawl fishery in Australia is used as a case study for this kind of fishery. It has the added complexity that a large part of the fishery is within a World Heritage Area, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, which is managed by an agency of the Australian Commonwealth Government whereas the fishery itself is managed by the Queensland State Government. A stakeholder elicitation process was used to develop social, governance, economic and ecological objectives, and then weight the relative importance of these. An expert group was used to develop different governance strawmen (or management strategies) and these were assessed by a group of industry stakeholders and experts using multi-criteria decision analysis techniques against the different objectives. One strawman clearly provided the best overall set of outcomes given the multiple objectives, but was not optimal in terms of every objective, demonstrating that even the “best” strawman may be less than perfect.     

Quantitative evaluation of the performance of a permit auction system in reducing bycatch of sea turtles in the Hawaii Swordfish longline fishery

Many authors have suggested the use of a cap and trade auction system to help reduce bycatch—the incidental take of species by fishing gear targeting other species—of sea turtles in the Hawaii-based swordfish longline fishery. However, we know of no quantitative evaluations of the method. We present a simple mathematical model to serve as a framework to evaluate bycatch auction systems quantitatively. We conclude that cap and trade auction systems have the potential to reduce sea turtle bycatch by creating a financial incentive, while keeping permit costs down to 2–3% of total revenues. While stringent regulations aimed at conserving endangered sea turtles would still be essential, implementation of an auction for issuing transferable bycatch permits would likely enhance the economic efficiency of the fleet. Sea turtle mortality could be reduced further if a shrinking cap on total turtle mortality was introduced, taking advantage of the incentives for reducing turtle mortality that are introduced by the cap and trade auction system.