Pollock recruitment and biomass in the Bering Sea has fluctuated in concert with environmental changes since the early 2000s. As pollock spatial distributions, densities, and abundances varied, fishers have adjusted their fishing behavior. Utilizing ~30,000 trips made by Bering Sea pollock catcher vessels from 2003 – 2014, we found strong...
Spatial closures are a prominent tool for ecosystem-based management in commercial fisheries. The potential benefits of spatial closures in commercial fisheries have been discussed thoroughly in the literature; however, empirical estimates of the potential short-run costs incurred by the commercial fishing industry are relatively scarce. Spatial closures constrain the ability...
The Alaska non-pollock multi-species catcher processor trawl fishery, referred to as the Amendment 80 fishery since 2008, is an endlessly fascinating subject from the perspective of an economist. A diverse group of companies and vessels, emphasizing different species mixes from a multi-species ecosystem, targets fish across the Eastern Bering Sea,...
With the creation of multi-species catch share programs, halibut bycatch reduction efforts, and through actions to reduce Chinook and chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska pollock fisheries, we have seen a variety of new bycatch management programs implemented over the last decade in Alaska. The...
This talk will introduce the special session on the Economics of Bycatch. It will provide an overview of the session. It will then discuss in general terms a variety of incentive-based approaches to managing bycatch that give vessels greater flexibility to devise cost-effective solutions of their own making. These include...
Bioeconomic modeling of an age-structured population typically assumes the value of a fish increases with size; the fish increase in weight as they age, and harvesters may receive an increase in the price per weight. When size selectivity is possible, traditional policy such as individual quotas may still result in...
We describe the dynamics by which competing harvesters selectively target prime market-sized fish, without internalizing the externality of increasing targeting costs, as the abundance of prime fish decreases. Due to the increasing targeting costs for prime size, harvesters continually target the next-most-desirable size fish, gradually fishing down the size structure...