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.     

Fish quota auctions in the Russian Far East: a failed experiment

For three years (2001–2003), fish quotas in the Russian far east (REE) were allocated by auction. First, a short overview of the RFE fisheries is provided and how the total allowable catch (TAC) is allocated between regions and (before the auctions) enterprises. Then the auction system is discussed. The purpose of the auctions was to divert some of the resource rent to the state budget and to increase the transparency of the quota allocation mechanism. In the end, a lot less of the TAC than intended was sold by auctions. Nevertheless, the auctions provided a substantial income for the government. On the other hand they led to a decline in industry profits and greater indebtedness of the industry. Arguably they also led to more of illegal fishing, as firms bought quotas in order to cover operations on a greater scale that were not well monitored. In 2004 the auction system was abandoned, in part due to pressures from the industry.     

Assessment of MSC-certified fish stocks in the Northeast Atlantic

This study examines the status and exploitation level of 31 northern European stocks targeted by fisheries certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) as being sustainable and well managed. In the first year of certification, 11 stocks (52% of stocks with available data) were exploited above the maximum sustainable level and four stocks (16% of stocks with available data) were outside of safe biological limits. MSC states that it certifies sub-standard stocks because they will improve once they are in their program. However, after a duration of certification of one to ten years (average four years), no significant changes in fishing pressure or stock size were detected. In the last certified year with available data, seven stocks (44% of stocks with available data) were subject to overfishing and five stocks (21% of stocks with available data) were outside of safe biological limits. Certification should guarantee that fishing quotas are set correctly and are enforced. However, in 11 stocks quotas were set 20–60% above the level that fishers were taking, whereas in three stocks landings exceeded quotas by 30–50%. The study concludes that MSC should change its rules such that overfishing or unsafe stock sizes lead to immediate suspension of certification and that no certification is issued in the first place for a stock that is already in such a situation.     

Towards sustainable fisheries subsidies: Entering a new round of reform under the Common Fisheries Policy

On 22 April 2009 the European Commission published its ‘Green Paper on the Reform of the Common Fisheries Policy’. The Green Paper points out a contradiction in policy, noting on one hand that public financial support to the Community's fisheries sector is substantial, but on the other hand such support is often incompatible with other Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) objectives, particularly the need to reduce overcapacities. Providing an analytical framework to better understand the effects of subsidies as well as an overview of existing funding schemes under the CFP, this article aims at answering some of the questions posed by the European Commission within its Green Paper. Answers are based on two ideas: the exploitation of marine capture resources ultimately depends on the level of available fish stocks and that a large share of subsidies fuels the race to fish by inducing investment incentives for the fisheries sector. Policies that have ignored this tend to encourage inefficient and unsustainable fishing as well as the misallocation of public funds. Although support schemes under the CFP have changed in recent years, some problematic support schemes persist. A future reform will have to continue the course taken towards sustainable and efficient approaches to supporting the fisheries industry.     

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.     

Economic gains from introducing international ITQs—The case of the mackerel and herring fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic

Achieving a balance between fishing capacity and fishing opportunities is one of the major challenges in European fisheries. One way to achieve this is to introduce individual tradable quotas or similar management measures. In several mackerel and herring fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic, such systems have already been introduced on a national basis and the long term economic gains of this have been acknowledged. This paper takes this a step further and investigates the potential economic gains from introducing individual tradable quotas between countries. Overall, the results show that the gross cash flow can be improved by 21% by allowing the mackerel and herring quotas to be traded internationally in the Northeast Atlantic. This rent gain arises mainly from increased productivity by allowing tradability between areas and fleets. The analysis also shows that the Danish pelagic fleet will gain from increasing its share of mackerel and herring quotas, whereas the Irish fleets are incentivised to sell quota, if individual quotas are allowed to be traded among countries. This result is in line with the qualitative analyses that show that Irish fishermen targeting herring in the Celtic Sea are negatively oriented towards international individual tradable quotas, whereas the Danish pelagic fishermen have strong preferences for international individual tradable quotas.     

Sea level variation in the eastern Asia

Mean sea level variations in the eastern Asia region during 1950 to 1991 are investigated with the use of observed sea level data at 16 stations. It is suggested from the data analysis, that the main cause of long-term sea level variation in this region may be the plate tectonic processes. The mean sea levels along the eastern coasts of Japan and the Philippines, and that along the southern coast of Indonesia have risen due to the subsidence of Pacific, Philippine and Australian plates under the Eurasian plate, respectively. On the other hand, the mean sea levels along the western coasts of Japan and the Philippines, and that along the northern coast of Indonesia have fallen. The distribution map of mean sea level rise at the year 2030 from 1985 in this region is presented on the basis of the results of this work and IPCC (1990).     

Economic gains of liberalising access to fishing quotas within the European Union

This paper analyses the extent to which specialisation gains can be achieved by liberalising access to fishing quotas within the European Union (EU). Fishing quotas are today exchanged between EU member states at a rate of 4% of total turnover in EU fisheries. Germany, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands are the most active. Only one fourth of these exchanges are permanent. With the management systems in EU fisheries differing among countries, comparative advantages in fisheries exist in member states with the best management practices. Hence, although positive but small specialisation gains exist in EU fisheries today, these gains might potentially be increased by liberalising access to fishing quotas and allowing transferability of quotas between individuals from different countries on a permanent basis. Increasing the gains might, however, affect relative stability.     

Distributional issues in the operation of rights-based fisheries management systems

Rights-based management regimes are considered by economists as an important solution to the problems of excess capacity and biological over-harvesting of fisheries. In practice, adoption of such regimes, and particularly of those relying on individual quota allocations, has often met with resistance from within the fisheries concerned. A key reason for this resistance appears to be the distributional conflicts which arise in the process of implementing the regimes. An economic analysis of the nature of these conflicts in the different contexts in which they have been observed is proposed. The approach centres on the way in which distributional conflicts can influence the operation of management systems and their impacts on fisheries, from the country to the individual firm level. As an illustration, an analysis of the economic processes at firm level is developed based on the simulation of a fishery managed under individual transferable quotas.     

Ignoring market failure in quota leasing?

This short communication is, in part, a response to the Bruce Turris' rejoinder (Marine Policy…2010) to Pinkerton et al., The elephant in the room: The hidden costs of leasing individual transferable fishing quotas (Marine Policy, July 2009). In responding to this article on the unacknowledged problems of unregulated and even unrecorded leasing of individual transferable fishing quotas (ITQs), Turris illustrated the point of the original article well by minimizing the status of leasing as a major influence leading to problems with the fishery: an elephant in the room. Turris focused instead on relatively small and less relevant details, misrepresented the argument, and largely ignored or skirted our discussion of the absent structural conditions important for open competition and efficient outcomes. This response addresses several of his concerns, elaborates on some of the initial points in the original article and contributes some new ones.     

The Ocean Loading Effect in the GPS Analysis: A Case Study in the Antarctic Peninsula Region

The accuracy of GPS data analysis for the vertical component has reached a level where the vertical crustal deformation due to the ocean tidal loading should be taken into consideration. Ocean loading affects in particular the results of the GPS analysis for those observation sets covering less than 24 hours. Especially in these cases, a correction for this phenomenon should be performed during the data analysis. On the other hand, it is possible to estimate the ocean loading effect from GPS data sets. In this way it is possible to validate models for the loading deformation derived from global ocean tide models.     

Cellular iron contents of plankton during the Southern Ocean Iron Experiment (SOFeX)

Iron (Fe) availability limits phytoplankton biomass and production in large regions of the Southern Ocean and influences community composition and size structure, which may affect C export and other system-level functions. To improve our understanding of Fe partitioning within communities and the response of different components to fertilization, we assessed the cellular Fe contents of individual diatoms, autotrophic flagellates, and heterotrophic flagellates during the recent Southern Ocean Fe Experiment using synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence (SXRF). Dual ⁵⁵Fe/¹⁴C radioisotope incubations were also conducted to estimate Fe:C ratios in size-fractionated plankton. Cellular Fe quotas determined by the two techniques were in close agreement when low amounts of ⁵⁵Fe (0.2 nM) were added, but ⁵⁵Fe additions of 2 nM resulted in 2–3-fold higher quotas. SXRF assessments of cellular Fe quotas (normalized to C) were generally in good agreement with prior bulk analyses of natural assemblages, but revealed compositional differences among protistan taxa not previously detected. Mean Fe:C ratios for diatoms, autotrophic flagellates, and heterotrophic flagellates from unfertilized waters were 6.0, 8.7, and 14.1 μmol mol C⁻¹, respectively. Smaller cells had higher Fe:C ratios than larger cells. Fertilization enhanced Fe quotas in all cell types, with mean Fe:C ratios increasing approximately 4-fold (from about 10 to about 40 μmol mol C⁻¹) after two Fe additions. This study provides some of the first measurements of Fe quotas in phytoplankton cells from natural communities and the first measurements of Fe quotas in natural protozoa.     

Analysis of the experimental compressibility of deep water marine sediments from the Gulf of Guinea

This study strives to analyze the compressibility of deep water marine sediments originating from the Gulf of Guinea. Our approach is multi-scaled and, on the macroscopic level, based on two equations which link the overburden effective stress with the liquidity index, the Biarez & Favre equation on the one hand, and the Burland equation on the other hand (after calculation of the ICL expression as a function of the I_L parameter). On the local level, the evolution of the microstructures is analysed and compared with GoG remoulded clay. Two additional observation techniques have been used, the scanning electron microscope and the mercury intrusion porosimetry.     

高邮凹陷南断阶许庄—竹墩地区断层发育演化和油气成藏

为了揭示高邮凹陷南断阶许庄—竹墩地区复杂断裂系统的成因、演化与油气成藏的关系,通过对不整合面地层剥蚀量计算、构造演化剖面分析等方法,系统地总结了许庄—竹墩地区断层的发育演化规律。吴堡运动和三垛运动时期是断裂活动最强烈的时期,许庄—竹墩地区的地层受到较强的剥蚀作用。本区主要断层的发育顺序依次为真①断层、纪③断层、真②’断层和真③断层,同一断层在不同的地质时期和平面上的不同位置,发育强度有明显的差异性。断层的活动一方面形成了一系列的断块圈闭,另一方面是油气垂向运移的主要通道,因此在本区形成了一系列的断块圈闭油藏。     

The equity debate: distributional impacts of individual transferable quotas

The twin goals of economic efficiency and social equity often seem at odds, particularly in the debate over two marine policy approaches: firm-level regulation of inputs and outputs (“command and control”) and individual transferable quotas. This paper examines the debate over social equity in a US fishery that transitioned from command and control to individual transferable quotas—the mid-Atlantic clam fishery. The analysis draws on 17 years of data on fishing trips, vessel ownership, tradable property rights ownership, and output market shares. The results show that no segment of the industry was disproportionately adversely affected by the regulatory change; however, they also demonstrate the emergence of a new sector in the industry, which is predominantly made up of former small-scale harvesters.     

The cost-benefit ledger of quota leasing

Bruce Turris recently presented an analysis of the expenses and earnings of British Columbia fishermen who lease halibut quota (ITQs). The BC Longline Fishermen's Association, which represents active halibut fishermen has quite a different analysis of these costs and benefits, and also takes issue with Turris’ analysis of the state of the fishery in general under quotas.     

20世纪90年代后期南海上层海温变化趋势的转折

In this paper, the interdecadal variability of upper-ocean temperature in the South China Sea(SCS) is investigated based on several objectively analyzed data sets and two reanalysis data sets. The trends of the SCS sea surface temperature(SST) have changed from warming to cooling since the late 1990 s. A heat budget analysis suggests that the warming of the surface mixed layer during 1984–1999 is primarily attributed to the horizontal heat advection and the decrease of upward long wave radiation, with the net surface heat flux playing a damping role due to the increase of upward latent and sensible heat fluxes. On the other hand, the cooling of the surface mixed layer during 2000–2009 is broadly controlled by net surface heat flux, with the radiation flux playing the dominant role. A possible mechanism is explored that the variation of a sea level pressure(SLP) over the North Pacific Ocean may change the prevailing winds over the SCS, which contributes to the change of the SST in the SCS through the horizontal heat advection and heat fluxes.     

Probabilistic Distribution of Ice Forces on a Solitary Pile in the Liaodong Bay

The level ice thickness and compressive strength at the four measuring stations in the Liaodong Bay are inferred according to the hydrologic and meteorologic data there, then the yearly extreme ice forces on a solitary pile are calculated by the use of appropriate formula of ice forces and its probabilistic distribution is determined. Generally, the yearly extreme ice force follows Weibull distribution best as compared with Normal, Lognormal, and Extreme Value I distribution. On the other hand, the short-term distribution of ice forces on a solitary pile is obtained from the model experiment data analysis: It does not refuse Extreme Value I distribution.     

Experimental survey of the hydrodynamic performance of a small spar buoy

The objective in this experimental work is to evaluate the capability of several cylindrical buoys to follow and measure waves. Eleven configurations have been studied, eight among which were furnished with disks of different diameters at the waterline. The experiments took place in the test basin at ISITV. On the one hand, we have obtained a set of transfer coefficients for each frequency and each configuration in regular waves. On the other hand, we have determined the corresponding transfer functions, then we have used the latter to measure irregular waves. The time signals as measured by the buoys with and without corrections have been compared with wave gage measurements and subjected to a wave-by-wave analysis. The results allow the conclusion that the buoy with a medium size disk constitutes the best compromise. In fact, it permits the buoy to follow the free surface while minimizing parasitic motions.     

Ex ante evaluation of the costs and benefits of individual transferable quotas: A case-study of seven Australian commonwealth fisheries

Individual transferable quotas (ITQs) have been introduced in a number of different countries, including Australia. Using seven Australian commonwealth fisheries the paper undertakes an ex ante cost–benefit analysis whether to introduce ITQs into these fisheries. The analysis uses five cost–benefit criteria, and in particular the gross value of production (GVP), to evaluate whether ITQs should be introduced or not. For fisheries where the net benefits do not currently justify ITQs, a pathway is provided to improve management outcomes with the use of individual transferable efforts units (ITEs).