Fishery trends, resource-use and management system in the Ungwana Bay fishery Kenya

The present study assessed trends in resource-use, partitioning and management in the Ungwana Bay fishery, Kenya, using surplus production models. The fishery is one of East Africa’s important marine fisheries sustaining a bottom trawl commercial fishery and a resident-migrant artisanal fishery. Two models: Schaefer (1954) and Gulland and Fox (1975) were applied to catch-effort data over a 21-year period to model maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and optimal effort (f_MSY) to examine the status of resource exploitation and provide reference points for sustainable management. In the artisanal fishery, model MSYs range from 392-446 t to 1283-1473 t for shrimps and fish respectively compared to mean annual landings of 60 t for shrimp and 758 t for fish. These landings represent <50% of the model MSYs suggesting under exploitation in the sub-sector. Moreover, current fishing effort applied stands at <0.5 f_MSY. On the other hand, mean annual landings in bottom trawl commercial fishery, at about 330 t for shrimps and 583 t and fish represent about 90% of the model MSYs of 352-391 t and 499-602 t for shrimps and fish respectively. Therefore, the bottom trawl commercial fishery is likely under full exploitation. Similarly, the current effort is estimated at >0.7 f_MSY. Resource management in the bay is faced with numerous problems including resource-use conflicts, poor economic conditions in artisanal fishery, poor legislation, and inadequate research augmented by poor reporting systems for catch-effort statistics. Thus, the fishery lacks clearly defined exploitation regimes. Fisheries research and assessment of the marine resources are important for sustainability of the fishery. Moreover, income diversification in the poverty ridden artisanal fishery would go a long way in addressing resource-use conflicts and use of deleterious fishing methods in the sub-sector. Borrowing from the successes of the Japanese community-based fisheries resource management (CBFRM) which has easily resolved numerous fisheries management issues in coastal small-scale commercial fisheries, and the beach management unit (BMU) system which has been applied to the artisanal fisheries of south coast Kenya with enormous benefits, it is envisaged that a hybrid CBFRM-BMU system presents the best approach to sustainable resource-use in the Ungwana Bay fishery.     

Assessing the effects of moving to maximum economic yield effort level in the western rock lobster fishery of Western Australia

The western rock lobster (Panulirus cygnus) fishery has been facing significant economic pressure from increasing costs, lower prices as well as predicted reduced catches due to low recruitment. A maximum economic yield (MEY) assessment estimated the fishing effort that would maximise the net present value of profits over 2008/09–2013/14 was about 50%–70% reduction of 2007/08 effort. The assessment accounted for fixed vessel costs and the variable pot lift cost. An important component of this assessment was the use of puerulus settlement time series that provided a reliable predictor of recruitment to the fishery 3–4 years later. This can be contrasted to most MEY assessments that would use an average catch-effort relationship rather than taking into account the expected recruitment. This predictive ability has been particularly useful as there has been a period of unusually low puerulus settlements over the 5 years (2006/07–2010/11) including the lowest two settlements in the 40-year time series. Due to the low settlements, substantial management changes were implemented in 2008/09 and 2009/10 (44% and 73% reduction in nominal fishing effort, respectively compared to 2007/08) to maintain the breeding stock at sustainable levels by having a significant carryover of legal lobsters into future years of lower recruitment. These effort reductions provided a unique opportunity to assess the economic impact of a fishery moving to an MEY effort level over two years. The CPUE increased from 1.1 kg/pot lift in 2007/08 to 1.7 and 2.7 in 2008/09 and 2009/10, respectively. These CPUEs were much higher than the expected levels (1.2 and 1.1, respectively) if the 2007/08 effort had been maintained in these two years. The vessel numbers declined by 14% and 36% in 2008/09 and 2009/10, respectively, compared to 2007/08. The fishery profit increased by AUS$13 and 49 million for 2008/09 and 2009/10, respectively, compared to that estimated if the 2007/08 effort level had continued. This assessment demonstrates the economic benefits of fishing at a level close to that estimated for MEY under an input management regime. The management decision-rule framework is currently based on having the egg production above a threshold reference level to ensure sustainability and now a target reference point based on MEY principles is also being considered.     

Mechanization and technical interactions in multi-species Indian fisheries: implications for economic and biological sustainability

Joint capture of multiple species by multiple fleets results in technical and economic interactions between fleets. This paper develops a bioeconomic model that incorporates interrelationships between fleets for a representative fishery in India. The study analyzes the impacts of overcapitalization on bio-economic sustainability. Results show that a continuation of the current fishing intensity would deplete most commercially important species in the near future. However, an optimal effort re-allocation between fleets would increase fishery profits substantially, although some species would remain unsustainable. The study demonstrates how the newly emerging, large bodies of fishery data can be used for management decisions in developing countries.     

Own-price elasticity of open access supply as a long-run measure of fish stock abundance

Extensive criticisms of the management of marine fisheries periodically arise for a variety of reasons. While the complexity of the US fisheries management process is partially to blame, these reasons manifest themselves in statements that include a perceived decline in living marine resource abundance levels, a proposed change in the regulatory infrastructure, or improvements in stock abundance that some feel should allow for new entrants. Following these criticisms are calls to end the federal management process or at the very least the replacement of the fishery management agency leadership. These demands driven by rent seeking behavior use short-term declines in abundance as justification when the long-run abundance measures would have indicated improvements in stock abundance and achievement of management objectives. Empirical, long-run, stock abundance indices are estimated using synthetic demand methodology, based on bioeconomic fishery theory, applied in a general and partial equilibrium theory framework to determine if maximum sustainable yield (MSY) management targets have been achieved and maintained for four fisheries considered to be successfully managed and one characterized as a socio-economic disaster. The abundance of a fish stock is more influence by extra-market and extra-fishery forces than by fisheries managers who base allocation decisions solely on single species stock assessments.     

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.     

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.     

The MSY concept in a multi-objective fisheries environment – Lessons from the North Sea

One of the most important goals in current fisheries management is to maintain or restore stocks above levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield (MSY). However, it may not be feasible to achieve MSY simultaneously for multiple species because of trade-offs that result from interactions between species, mixed fisheries and the multiple objectives of stakeholders. The premise in this study is that MSY is a concept that needs adaptation, not wholesale replacement. The approach chosen to identify trade-offs and stakeholder preferences involved a process of consulting and discussing options with stakeholders as well as scenario modelling with bio-economic and multi-species models. It is difficult to intuitively anticipate the consequences of complex trade-offs and it is also complicated to address them from a political point of view. However, scenario modelling showed that the current approach of treating each stock separately and ignoring trade-offs may result in unacceptable ecosystem, economic or social effects in North Sea fisheries. Setting F_MSY as a management target without any flexibility for compromises may lead to disappointment for some of the stakeholders. To treat F_MSY no longer as a point estimate but rather as a “Pretty Good Yield” within sustainable ranges was seen as a promising way forward to avoid unacceptable outcomes when trying to fish all stocks simultaneously at F_MSY. This study gives insights on how inclusive governance can help to reach consensus in difficult political processes, and how science can be used to make informed decisions inside a multi-dimensional trade-off space.     

Accounting for indirect effects and non-commensurate values in ecosystem based fishery management (EBFM)

Ecosystem-based fishery management (EBFM) requires taking account of indirect effects (such as habitat destruction, incidental mortality, and competition between the fishery and marine mammals or birds) and dealing with non-commensurate values (such as yield from the fishery and production of offspring by the birds or mammals competing for the same resource). The perspective of EBFM requires that the rate of fishing mortality is less than the value that provides maximum sustainable yield (MSY), but the question is how far below this level should the fishery operate? For this problem in multiobjective programming, simple method of solution was developed and illustrated with the fishery for sandeels (Ammodytes spp.) in the Shetland Islands. The yield from the fishery at a given fishing mortality F is scaled by MSY (so that this quantity increases as fishing mortality increases from 0 to that giving MSY) and the breeding success of predators (black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla and Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea) at a given fishing mortality is scaled by that in the absence of fishing. The result is two non-dimensional quantities that can be combined into a single value function, which can then be explored or optimized. It is shown that a reduction of only about 20 percent in yield can nearly double the breeding performance of the more sensitive predator. Extensions of the method are discussed; these include the use of maximum economic yield (MEY) and state dependent life history, as implemented by stochastic dynamic programming.     

Decomposing productivity and efficiency changes in the Alaska head and gut factory trawl fleet

Fishing fleets are subject to numerous factors that affect economic performance, making identification and attribution of such impacts difficult. This paper separately identifies the effects of changing input and output prices, fishery management, and quota allocations on total factor productivity using a Lowe Index. Indices account for technical change and decompose productivity estimates into its technical, environmental, and scale-mix components. This results in measures that reflect shifts in the production frontier, and movements by vessels toward and around the frontier, to capture economies of scale and mix after a policy shift to a catch share program that includes fishing cooperatives and a limited access fishery. The difference between cooperative and limited access vessels is exploited to compare the changes in economic performance between the groups after the introduction of the shift to catch shares and cooperative management, which allowed the vessels to improve the timing and coordination across multi-species fisheries and to decrease incidental catch of quota-limited bycatch species that had closed the target fisheries prematurely in the past. Results indicate that total factor productivity increased significantly after the move to a catch share program, largely due to increases in technical change that shifted out the production frontier of the fishery.     

Long‐term trends in the recreational lobster fishery of Florida,United States: Landings,effort, and implications for management

In Florida, United States, the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus, supports an important commercial fishery and also perhaps the most intensive recreational fishery of any lobster species, with sales of recreational lobster fishing permits exceeding 100 000 annually. For the past decade, we have used mail surveys of recreational lobster license holders to estimate spatially explicit landings and fishing effort when recreational fishers are most active—during the state's “Special Two‐Day Sport Season”, which takes place just before the opening of the commercial season, and during the first month of the regular recreational season, which coincides with the commercial season. From 1993 through 2002, fishing effort during the Special Two‐Day Sport Season has ranged from 60 000 to 112 000 person‐days, and landings have ranged from c. 112 to 255t. Both fishing effort and landings have varied without trend. Fishing effort during the regular season over the same period has ranged from 261 000 to 514 000 person‐days, and landings have ranged from 434 to 825 t. Fishing effort has shown a marginally statistically significant decreasing trend, the result of a progressive decrease in effort since 1999. The largest proportion of both fishing effort and landings was concentrated along the south‐east coast. Despite the recent decrease in landings, the proportion of total landings made by the recreational fishery has increased. From 1993 through 1998, the fishery was responsible for c. 30% of commercial landings; by 2001, that percentage increased to nearly 40%. Such a shift in landings away from the commercial trap fishery toward the recreational fishery was recognised as a potential but unintended effect of the ongoing management plan of restricting effort in the commercial trap fishery. Our 2001 surveys revealed that recreational lobster fishers spent more on a person‐day basis than the general visitor to the Florida Keys did, but less than those visitors using the region's coral reefs. Consequently, managers must establish management strategies that allow the coexistence of this resource's user groups and also incorporate the social and environmental concerns of nonuser groups.     

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.     

Neoliberal and neo-communal herring fisheries in Southeast Alaska: Reframing sustainability in marine ecosystems

The transformation of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) fisheries from communal to commons to neoliberal regulation has had significant impacts on the health and sustainability of marine ecosystems on the Northwest Coast of North America. Due to their abundance, seasonality, and sensitivity in disturbance, herring were carefully cultivated and protected by coastal Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian communities. The early industrial fishing era undermined this communalist approach in favor of an unregulated commons for bait and reduction fisheries, attracting non-local fleets and leading to conflicts with local Natives and tragedy of the commons style overexploitation of herring stocks by the mid-twentieth century. Since the 1970s, a re-regulated neoliberal sac roe fishery for Japanese markets has provided new opportunities for limited commercial permit holders, but with further depredations on local spawning populations. This paper uses frame theory and historical and political ecology to show how this transformation was justified by three critical but dubious (re)framings of Southeast herring populations under modern scientific management: (1) a reductionist framing of single species productivity models, expressed as herring “biomass,” within space and time (baseline scale framing); (2) the selective framing and privileging of human industrial predation under maximum sustainable yield (MSY) within a dynamic ecosystem of multiple predator populations (actor relations framing); and (3) the strategic framing of spawning failure events and policy responses to those events by professional fisheries managers (event–response framing). Finally, the paper argues for a new social–ecological systems approach, based on aboriginal models of herring cultivation, to sustain a commercial, subsistence, and restoration economy for the fishery.     

Finding a balance between economic performance and capacity efficiency for sustainable fisheries: Case of the Da Nang gillnet fishery,Vietnam

Marine capture fisheries in Vietnam are small-scale, multi-species, multi-gear, and open access regime. Under numerous governmental promotion programs, Vietnamese fishing fleets have expanded at an uncontrollable rate. This research analyzes the economic performance and capacity efficiency of the Da Nang gillnet fishery. Data were obtained from 45 gillnetters in Da Nang using questionnaires, which were administered between April and July of 2011. The results showed that large-scale vessels (engine power≥90 hp) had better economic performance than small-scale vessels (engine power<90 hp) with average gross revenue flows of 1346.7 and 750.7 million VND, respectively. The large-scale vessels further actualized positive profits (15% gross revenue), while the small-scale vessels demonstrated negative results (−0.4% gross revenue). The main operating costs of fuel and labor accounted for 44% and 26%, respectively, of the total operating expenses. However, the results of the data envelopment analysis (DEA) showed that the Da Nang gillnet fishery did not operate at full capacity and that the unused capacity and the technical inefficiency rates were approximately 21.2% and 10.8%, respectively. The over-use of fuel, net sheets, and number of days at sea in the large-scale vessels were 7%, 10%, and 3%, respectively, while these ratios in the small-scale vessels were 7%, 3%, and 7%, respectively. Overcapacity may be separated into two parts, one part resulting from the optimal technical use of inputs and a second part resulting from enhancing the current policies. As such, feasible policies may include implementing the buyback of small and unprofitable vessels, and reviewing subsidy programs.     

Biological and economic vulnerabilities of fixed TACs in small pelagics: An analysis of the European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) in the Gulf ofCádiz

A coupled population dynamics and economic model is applied to the purse seine anchovy-fishery in the Gulf of Cádiz. The model simulates the population dynamics, landings and profits on a probabilistic frame. These simulations are used to assess the biological and economic consequences of an individual quota management framework enveloped by a fixed Total Allowable Catch (TAC), the present strategy used to manage this stock in the Spanish fishery. Our results accurately indicate that this strategy magnifies the biological and economic vulnerabilities associated with the exploitation of the stock, thus jeopardizing the sustainability of this fishery. Alternative strategies, such as an adaptive TAC, are explored. The results indicate that even a basic implementation of an adaptive TAC seems more favorable than the present strategy in the necessary equilibrium between profits and sustainability. This paper provides tools and an assessment that may also be useful for other small pelagic fisheries.     

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.     

Assessment of IUU fishing for Southern Bluefin Tuna

Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is recognized as one of the largest threats to the sustainability of the world's fisheries. This paper focuses on IUU fishing in the context of unreported catches by members or co-operating non-members of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) and their implications for scientific assessments of stock status and management advice. A review of Japanese market statistics was undertaken in 2006 by an independent panel in relation to catches of southern bluefin tuna (SBT). Based on this review, the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT) concluded that very substantial and continuous unreported catches of SBT had been taken by longline vessels since at least the early 1990s. While uncertainty exists about the fleets contributing to these IUU catches, the assumption used within the CCSBT Scientific Committee is that a significant proportion of these were taken by Japanese longliners. Implications of these unreported catches for the stock assessments by RFMOs are discussed in light of the central role that Japanese vessel reported data have in the assessment of the world's tuna and billfish stocks. Results indicate that it is plausible that the unreported catches of SBT stem from the misreporting of catches as other tuna species and/or the location of fishing effort. The magnitude and extended period of the unreported SBT catches highlight the wide-spread risks of relying on fishery dependent logbook data in the absence of verification. An urgent need exists for minimum standards of verification of catch, effort and landing statistics for use in scientific assessments. The fisheries science community needs to be more pro-active in the development of such standards and the implementation of independent monitoring and verification. In addition, there is a need to reform the operation of the scientific bodies of RFMOs in terms of transparency, the treatment of uncertainty and the burden of proof if they are to be effective in providing objective scientific advice consistent with the intent of international agreements.     

Determining primary and companion species in a multi-species fishery: Implications for TAC setting

The use of ITQ management in multi-species fisheries has been the subject of much debate and the complexities and difficulties of managing multi-species fisheries are well known. A major problem is that the species mix in fishery catches may not necessarily match the mix in combined TACs or in quota holdings. While a number of solutions have been proposed or implemented to improve transferability of quota and other incentives to reduce over-quota fishing and discarding, it is surprising that there has been little focus on TAC-setting itself and coordinating this across multiple species/stocks as a means of dealing with some of these issues. In this paper, data were analysed from the trawl sector of the Australian Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery to determine the relationship between primary species and companion species and the implications this has for TAC setting. The primary species is the species being considered when setting an individual species TAC. The companion species are ones that should also be considered when setting the TAC of the primary species, because a considerable proportion of the primary species catch is taken as a companion species non-target catch. The target species in each fishing operation was determined and was used to characterize recent multi-species catch data into primary and companion components. This approach provides an empirical means to examine the impact of individual species TAC decisions across all of the quota species in a 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.     

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.     

The Common Fisheries Policy: An enforcement problem

Marine populations in Europe are in decline due to the unsuccessful results of the Common Fisheries Policy. By combining data of scientific recommendations from ICES, TACs approved and reported landings with an age-structured model, the objectives of this paper are to investigate the level of compliance of the TAC regulation, and the level of enforcement and its economic impact on fishery resources. The results presented here suggest that while there does not exist a regular pattern between TAC proposal and TAC approved, there is a clear pattern between TAC approved and reported landings. As a consequence, there is a regular lack of enforcement at national fisheries authority level. The paper also presents results of the recovery plans for the Southern hake and the Atlantic cod fisheries as case studies to illustrate the level of enforcement based on collusion between national fisheries advisers and industry. The results from both cases studies analyzed here indicate that drastic solutions could generate positive results for the recovery of the stocks, but perhaps they are not always the best measure in fisheries management due to the high economic losses for fishermen and social effects on coastal communities in the short and medium term. Finally, this work demonstrates that if the recovery plans had been implemented, the net present profits for both fisheries would have increased over time.