Three case studies were included in a study on fishing vessels, most of which use trawl gear in demersal
fisheries. The case studies include the French Bay of Biscay bottom-trawlers, the English beam trawlers
fishing in the English Channel, Celtic Sea and North Sea, and the Basque trawlers fishing in...
The objective of the paper is to briefly present a comparative analysis of trends in the characteristics of
selected European fleets, observed over the last fifteen years, as an introduction to three empirical studies
of the behavioural determinants of these trends. The analysis presented aims at (i) describing changes
observed...
Recent work in the domain of fisheries ecology has shown that major changes are occurring in fish
communities exploited by commercial fisheries. Selective fishing pressure on more highly valued
components of fish communities, and its indirect effects via trophic interactions, are amongst the key
factors proposed to explain these changes....
This paper deals with the economic impact of an aquatic invasive alien species on a coastal shellfish
fishery. A slipper-limpet (Crepidula fornicata ) was accidentally imported some decades ago, has
established and is spreading in the bay of Saint-Brieuc (France). This exotic species is acting as a space
competitor for...
Fisher behavior can be divided into choices made in the short term (i.e. tactics) and choices made in the long-mid term (i.e. strategies). Random utility modeling (RUM) is well suited for the empirical analysis of these issues. In this paper, RUM is applied to a number of EU fisheries in...
As many cases of tropical small-scale fisheries, the French Guiana coastal fishery is characterized by
the
high fish biodiversity of its ecosystem, the weak selectivity of the fleets exploiting the resources,
the
heterogeneity of the vessels in term of size and fishing techniques. The traditional tools used to manage
fisheries...
The decision to enter or exit a fishery can be expected to depend on the anticipated profitability of operating in
this fishery, as a function of observed vessel performances in previous years. For a vessel exiting a fishery,
there may be several reasons including decommissioning, selling or operating elsewhere. Entry...
This paper proposes a formal analysis of the discarding issue including the sorting labour costs. Empirical evidences from an application to the Nephrops fishery in the Bay of Biscay show that sorting is an important time consuming activity on board and a factor of discarding. However existing literature does not...
While the need to solve problems of overcapitalization and excess investment in fisheries is now broadly
admitted, very little information exists on the level of capitalization and the structure of capital invested in
the fishing sector. This paper presents the first results of a research program aiming at assessing the...
Indicators of the economic performance of fishing vessels are frequently computed in many countries. Usually, measures of economic performance are based on the return on capital invested. However, several measures of capital value exist, according to the economic information available. In this paper, we use different types of information to...
Integrating governance mechanisms into bio-economic modeling tools is a key challenge for the assessment of fisheries management plans. Impact assessments are carried out without considering real management options and institutional context. Only fishing mortality changes and their impact on fish stocks are considered. The Bay of Biscay sole fishery offers...
Since 2006, French quotas are shared out into annual catch entitlements per producer organizations (PO) according a stable allocation key. On this basis, PO’s have imposed catch shares to their own members but allocation and management rules are heterogeneous between PO’s. The objective of the paper is i) to assess...
This paper compares two methods for collecting data concerning professional fishing fleets economic performance : use of preexisting bookkeeping databases and ad hoc field surveys of fishers. Each method has its pros and cons and, for practical reasons, it may be necessary to make use of both. Such a feature...
Quota allocation mechanisms have distributional effects with important issues concerning the economic organization of the fishery and acceptability. Yet, these distributional effects are rarely studied. In France, where fishing rights are not transferable, the quotas are shared between producer cooperatives based on the historical landings of their members. Each cooperative...