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.     

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.     

Changes in fishing behaviour of two fleets under fully documented catch quota management: Same rules,different outcomes

A Dutch pilot study of fully documented fisheries provided the opportunity to observe actual changes in fishing behaviour under catch quota management (CQM). Interviews with fishers in the pilot study aided in interpreting the results and giving insight in the decision making process and reasoning of fishers. The CQM pilot study entailed a fleet of small and large demersal vessels. For these vessels, all cod catches were counted against quota, including catches of individuals below minimum landings size. To obtain reliable catch data all vessels were equipped with electronic monitoring (EM) systems. These systems recorded videos of all fishing and processing activities on board. In return, fishers received a 30% quota bonus for cod and were compensated with more flexibility on effort regulations. It was hypothesized that vessels in the CQM will (i) increase their landings by 30% according to their quota bonus, (ii) increase the use of gear with large mesh size, and (iii) change effort towards fishing locations with high catch rates of large cod and avoid areas with high catch rates of undersized cod. The results showed that CQM had no effect on fishing behaviour of the small vessels. In contrast, large vessels significantly increased their cod landings (216%) and avoided undersized cod. This difference in response of different fleets suggested that implementation of CQM, for instance in the context of the European Common Fisheries Policy, should consider fleet characteristics. It seemed that larger vessels in this study more easily adapted their behaviour to new management regimes and that the quota bonus opened up new fishing strategies, that were not envisaged during the implementation.     

The paradox of fairness: The impact of escalating complexity on fishery management

In the US and Canada, a commitment to fairness leads to overly complex management regimes that contribute to overexploitation. We illustrate the pattern of increasing complexity in the Scotia/Fundy groundfish fishery in Atlantic Canada, the New England groundfish fishery and the Fraser River salmon fishery in British Columbia, all of which have collapsed or declined in recent years. Increasing complexity proceeds inexorably in publicly managed fisheries. However, the alternatives of transferring ownership to individual fishers or fishing communities appear not to be viable solutions. Rather, we suggest a co-management approach which may be unfair to some fishers but will greatly reduce the pressure to overfish.     

Considering community allocations: Power and the politics of enclosure in the Gulf of Alaska

In 2012, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council initiated the process of designing a new management structure for the Gulf of Alaska trawl groundfish fleet. The new program is currently structured as a catch share program and driven by the need to end the ‘race for fish’ and provide the trawl fleet with the tools to reduce bycatch. To date much of the discussion among policy makers and stakeholders has centered on community protection measures and how best to avoid the negative social and economic impacts of catch share programs including impacts to crew, consolidation and the flight of quota and resource wealth from Gulf of Alaska fishery dependent communities. This paper examines how community protection measures related to the distribution of benefits and access to fishery resources are considered and challenged in the North Pacific today. Special attention is given to the ongoing debate surrounding the potential inclusion of an initial allocation to place-based Gulf of Alaska communities via a Community Fishing Association. As part of this effort, this paper examines the political space and underlying power dynamics in which consideration of alternatives to the commodification of fishing rights occurs.     

Contrasting trends in the Northeast United States groundfish and scallop processing industries

In the northeast United States, groundfish landings have declined almost continually since 1983. Fresh groundfish processors have redeployed their marketing capital by substituting other seafood products in place of regional groundfish and expanding into different markets. Meanwhile, northeast U.S. Atlantic sea scallop landings sharply increased starting in 1998, peaked in 2004, remained relatively constant until declining in 2013 and 2014. In order to leverage their favorable access to increased landings, scallop processors invested in development of new products, such as individually quick frozen (IQF) scallops, and invested in marketing activities to attract new customers, including those located in foreign nations. This behavior is consistent with Montgomery and Wernerfelt's theory of diversification in response to excess capacity of firm-specific resources and investments in product development and marketing in firm specific resources. Price and quantity indicators were used to examine the effects of shifting landings and composition of landings on exvessel values. These indicators show that declines in groundfish exvessel values were driven by declining quantities, which is consistent with processors substituting other products rather than biding up exvessel prices. Increases in scallop exvessel values were driven by both increasing prices for all sizes and by increasing quantities for large scallops, which is consistent with investment in marketing for larger scallops.     

History,effort distribution and landings in an artisanal bottom longline fishery: An empirical study from the North Atlantic Ocean

Commercial fishing data were used to reconstruct historical spatio-temporal patterns of fishing effort and landings in the bottom longline fishery of the Azores. Key events during an important 15-year period were charted, through fisher interviews together with GIS analysis. While effort distribution varied over time, the prevailing pattern was a shift in focus from eastern to western areas and from shelf/slope to offshore banks and seamounts in response to policy measures (e.g. banning bottom longline inside 3 NM, public aids for modernization of the fleet) and reduced fishing yields. Areas 12–50 NM from shore represented the most vital fishing grounds in terms of fishing effort and production. Declining landings of the major demersal species, in recent years, indicate that present catch levels are not sustainable and further measures need to be taken in order to sustain fisheries resources. Knowledge of fleet behavior and the distribution of fishing effort, particularly in patchy environments, provide valuable insights into the impacts of past management decisions and help predict the outcome of new policies both in this region and elsewhere.     

Spatio‐temporal variations in demersal fish assemblages and diversity in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada)

Species diversity is generally considered one of the key factors of ecosystem resilience in response to anthropogenic pressures, including fishing. In this context, the spatial and temporal changes in demersal fish assemblages and species diversity were investigated in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada), over a 20‐year period (1990–2010). Data were obtained from the summer research survey conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and include commercial and non‐commercial species. The study covers the period of groundfish fishery collapse, the moratorium period, and the post‐moratorium period, and reflects various modifications in management. Multivariate statistical methods revealed two communities. A coastal community corresponds to strata located above 200 m depth and a deeper community located in the deep channels. Interannual differences in the composition of fish assemblages were observed and are mainly due to the changes in the relative biomass of some dominant species. Three diversity indices (Shannon–Wiener, Simpson's Index of Diversity and Motomura's constant) indicate a slight but significant increase of the diversity over time. This trend is due to the increase of the relative biomass of low‐rank species, which may have been favoured by the prohibition of groundfish trawling after 1997 in that region. The geographical distribution of the Shannon–Wiener index also shows temporal dynamics reflecting the biomass distribution of dominant demersal species.     

Performance of a northwestern Mediterranean bottom trawl fleet: How the integration of landings and VMS data can contribute to the implementation of ecosystem-based fisheries management

The European Union has established a framework to achieve or maintain good environmental status in the marine environment by 2020. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires the application of the ecosystem approach to the management of human activities, covering all sectors having an impact on the marine environment. However, fisheries in the Mediterranean are far from a systematic implementation of an ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM). Aiming to address this issue, this study explores the potential of the relationship between daily yield by vessel (landings and income by species) and vessel position (known via vessel monitoring system) as a tool for fleet management. This approach is possible due to the current dynamics of Mediterranean fleets, with vessels returning daily to the harbour where landings are registered as weight and income by vessel. Moreover, vessels of >15 m total length have been compulsory monitored by VMS since 2005. A bottom trawl fleet that operates in the northwestern Mediterranean was chosen to develop this approach. Different groups of trawlers were identified, which could be linked to the strategies displayed by the fishermen that were mainly driven by the target species dynamics. Accurate knowledge of the fishing targets driving the fleet dynamics and of the fishing strategies at the vessel level (i.e. fishing ground habitat where the fishing pressure is exerted and corresponding landings) are shown to be a feasible tool for fleet management.     

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.     

Challenging spatial and seasonal distribution of fish landings—Experiences from vertically integrated trawlers and delivery obligations in Norway

The highly seasonal Norwegian cod fisheries give rise to problems downstream in the value chain and the authorities have introduced several schemes to counter the strong incentives for seasonal harvesting. This paper studies how the trawler delivery obligation (TDO) regime influences aspects of the harvesting pattern, focusing on the temporal and geographic distribution of landings. The analysis shows that the trawlers as a group have far less seasonal variations in their cod landings compared to the coastal fleet. While the Norwegian fleet lands about 75% during the first half-year, the corresponding share for trawlers is about 50%. Contrary to the initial hypothesis, the independent trawlers fished the most off-season; about 57% of their total landings. Trawlers controlled by vertically integrated firms landed considerably less (about 45%) and independently owned trawlers with landing obligations fell between these two strategic groups (about 50%). Vertically integrated vessels have a higher fulfilment of their landing obligations than the independently owned. The differences between the strategic groups are relatively high, at 68% vs. 38%. These results indicate that delivery obligations alone are not sufficient to provide control over the geographic distribution.     

Forecasting bivalve landings with multiple regression and data mining techniques: The case of the Portuguese Artisanal Dredge Fleet

This paper develops a decision support tool that can help fishery authorities to forecast bivalve landings for the dredge fleet accounting for several contextual conditions. These include weather conditions, phytotoxins episodes, stock-biomass indicators per species and tourism levels. Vessel characteristics and fishing effort are also taken into account for the estimation of landings. The relationship between these factors and monthly quantities landed per vessel is explored using multiple linear regression models and data mining techniques (random forests, support vector machines and neural networks). The models are specified for different regions in the Portugal mainland (Northwest, Southwest and South) using six years of data 2010–2015). Results showed that the impact of the contextual factors varies between regions and also depends on the vessels target species. The data mining techniques, namely the random forests, proved to be a robust decision support tool in this context, outperforming the predictive performance of the most popular technique used in this context, i.e. linear regression.     

Accountability,transformative learning,and alternate futures for New England groundfish catch shares

Environmental change heightens the need for governance structures that enable transformative social learning across socio-ecological scales. Questions arise concerning the ability of audit-based accountability to deliver such adaptive outcomes, particularly if implementation is hampered by communicative divides between insider and outsider groups. In the New England region of the United States, groundfish policy and its catch share system present an illustrative case. Despite severe depletion of cod and other species, governance insiders prevent consideration of regulatory alternatives. An insider-outsider activist strategy based in the state of Maine aims to regain fishery access, intensify grassroots community organizing to support owner-operators attentive to conservation ethics, broaden participation within conventional science and management venues, and improve prospects for community-based area management through strategic policy networks. Adaptive, polycentric accountability therefore seems more feasible, but requires further development.     

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.     

Fishermen responses on marine protected areas in the Baltic cod fishery

Much of the research that concerns the impacts of management measures in the eastern Baltic cod fishery has focused on fish stock rather than understanding fishermen's attitudes towards regulations. Hence, there is little information available on fishermen's responses although they are the ones whom the regulations affect most profoundly. This study analyses the views of fishermen towards management measures with an emphasis on fishing closures (marine protected areas, MPAs). Swedish log-book data from 1996 to 2005 were used to describe MPA induced fishing effort displacements. Fishermen argued that MPAs have been inefficient in conservation of cod stock. The enlargement of Bornholm MPA in 2005 caused substantial effort displacement towards areas dominated by smaller sized fish. This contributed to the increased discarding of juvenile cod. Enlarged MPAs also intensified competition between different fleet segments and reallocated fishing areas. To reduce fishing mortality, fishermen suggested days-at-sea (effort) regulation and an effective landings control system for all fleets that exploit cod stocks in the Baltic Sea Main Basin. These measures would better motivate fishermen for mutual rule compliance, which is a prerequisite for a sustainable cod fishery.     

Fishing strange data in national fisheries statistics of Greece

Fisheries statistics provided by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (HELSTAT) have been often criticized for unusual estimates in landings and fishing effort data and for limitations in the sampling methodology, although there is no study on the identification of these biased and misreporting estimates. In the present study the landings per species and fishing subarea, as well as the fishing effort data per fishing gear reported by HELSTAT were analysed over the period 1982–2010. The results showed abrupt changes of both the recorded species and species landings per subarea, spurious correlations of landings among different species groups and misreporting estimates in the number of fishing vessels per fishing gear. These might be likely attributed to: (a) differences of the HELSTAT administrative infrastructures at local scale, (b) changes in the sampling protocol followed by HELSTAT, (c) reporting faults made by HELSTAT, (d) fisheries restrictive measures at local basis, (e) other factors that increased the bias and the uncertainties of HELSTAT fisheries data and related to socio-economic (i.e. fuel price) and operational (i.e. spatial structure of the fisheries fleet) aspects and/or (f) to environmental changes that might possibly affected fisheries dynamics. The present study aims to the improvement of the effectiveness of the national fisheries statistics as pinpointed by Common Fisheries Policy in order to avoid imprecise and/or biased estimations about the state of the fisheries.     

From krill to convenience stores: Forecasting the economic and ecological effects of fisheries management on the US West Coast

There is a need to better understand the linkages between marine ecosystems and the human communities and economies that depend on these systems. Here those linkages are drawn for the California Current on the US West Coast, by combining a fishery ecosystem model (Atlantis) with an economic model (IO-PAC) that traces how changes in seafood landings impact the broader economy. The potential effects of broad fisheries management options are explored, including status quo management, switching effort from trawl to other gears, and spatial management scenarios. Relative to Status Quo, the other scenarios here involved short-term ex-vessel revenue losses, primarily to the bottom trawl fleet. Other fleets, particularly the fixed gear fleet that uses pots and demersal longlines, gained revenue in some scenarios, though spatial closures of Rockfish Conservation Areas reduced revenue to fixed gear fleets. Processor and wholesaler revenue tracked trends in the bottom trawl fleet, which accounted for 58% of total landings by value. Income impacts (employee compensation and earnings of business owners) on the broader economy mirrored the revenue trends. The long-term forecast (15 years) from the Atlantis ecosystem model predicted substantial stock rebuilding and increases in fleet catch. The 15 year projection of Status Quo suggested an additional ∼$27 million in revenue for the fisheries sectors, and an additional $23 million in income and 385 jobs in the broader economy, roughly a 25% increase. Linking the ecological and economic models here has allowed evaluation of fishery management policies using multiple criteria, and comparison of potential economic and conservation trade-offs that stem from management actions.     

Free form property rights for fisheries: The decentralized design of rights-based management through groundfish “sectors” in New England

Harvest cooperatives were implemented in several US fisheries over the last decade during a period when US law prohibited implementation of any new individual fishery quota (IFQ) systems. Harvest cooperatives provided an alternative to individual quotas as a means to end the race for fish and increase fishery profitability. The prohibition on new IFQ systems in the US was lifted, but harvest cooperatives remain a more feasible and perhaps a superior alternative to IFQs for some fisheries. The New England Fishery Management Council is on the verge of implementing a new management system for the groundfish fishery based on harvest cooperatives known as “sectors”. This paper describes the New England sector management system and discusses a number of advantages but also some drawbacks relative to IFQs. It argues that a hybrid of the two approaches could have advantages over either.     

Lessons for fisheries management from the EU cod recovery plan

The performance of the EU long-term management plan for cod stocks, in force since 2009, is analysed focusing on the human and institutional factors. The plan operates through landings quotas (TACs) and effort restrictions following a Harvest Control Rule, and deploys a novel instrument allowing Member States to ‘buy back’ or increase fishing effort for fleet segments engaged in cod-avoidance measures. The stipulated fishing mortality reductions have not been achieved. On the positive side, the ‘buy-back’ instrument has led to increased uptake of selective gear and implementation of permanent and real-time temporary closures. On the negative side, ignoring the dimension of fishers as reactive agents in the design, the impact assessment, and the annual implementation of the measures has contributed to the failure to adequately implement the plan and achieve its objectives. The main problem is that the landings quotas taken in a mixed fishery did not limit catches because fishers were incentivised to continue fishing and discard overquota catch while quota for other species was available. The effort limitations intended to reduce this effect were insufficient to adequately limit fishing mortality in targeted fisheries, although fishers experienced them as prohibiting the full uptake of other quotas. Recommendations for future plans include (i) management through catch rather than landings quotas, (ii) the internalisation of the costs of exceeding quotas, (iii) use of more selective gear types, (iv) the development of appropriate metrics as a basis for regulatory measures and for evaluations, (v) participatory governance, (vi) fishery-based management, (vii) flexibility in fishing strategy at vessel level.     

Institutional change,fishing rights and governance mechanisms: The dynamics of the Spanish 300 fleet on the Grand Sole fishing grounds

The “Spanish 300 Fleet” on the Grand Sole fishing grounds has been one of the most important fleets in Europe for decades. This paper analyses the process of institutional change that has determined the governance mechanisms and the property-rights system in the case of the Spanish 300 fleet. It studies the centralized top-to-bottom process of institutional change that has included some relevant legal norms such as the approval of the compatibility of the vessel scrapping grants while retaining ownership of the fishing rights, the transferability of rights and lastly the implementation of ITQs in 2007, among other changes. This evolution of the governance mechanisms has facilitated the modernization and size adjustment of this fleet, which has been oversized for the fishing opportunities provided by the TACs. The paper explains how this process of institutional change has implied a reduction of the “300 fleet” to a 100 fleet while shedding light on the relationships between institutional change, governance mechanisms and the property-rights system in this case of fisheries management.