Differences in technical efficiency of fishing vessels are often attributed to skipper skill and differences in technology. While the later can be defined in terms of the technology employed, the former is more difficult to quantify. In this paper, the contribution of technology and skipper characteristics (e.g. level of education,...
Technical efficiency (TE) measures the relationship between a vessel’s inputs to the fishing process and its outputs, with full efficiency being achieved when outputs are maximised from a given set of inputs. Inputs can be physical (e.g. the vessel, gear, engine, onboard equipment, etc.), flexible (time spent fishing, size of...
Fisheries management is characterised by multiple objectives. However, seldomly do bioeconomic models incorporate more than one or possibly two key objectives, typically profit and employment, into an analysis. There are both practical and technical reasons for this. This study considers the incorporation of eight key objectives into a bioeconomic analysis...
Recently, there has been an increasing interest among researchers on efficiency in fisheries. They have not just been focused on the analysis of the efficiency itself but also for other purposes as measures of capacity utilisation. However, often, efficiency analyses do not offer clear results regarding the sources of the...
Spatial bio-economic models are becoming increasingly important in the attempt to offer ever more dependable advice to fisheries managers. The main reason for this is the escalating interest in marine protected areas and more precisely fishing exclusion zones. As such the key issue of fishing effort dynamics needs to be...
Closed areas are often used as either temporary or permanent measures to reduce fishing pressure on stocks. A major concern, however, is what happens to the effort that was previously employed in these areas. When modelling the potential impacts of the closed areas, it is necessary to model changes in...
In the UK, individual quotas are imposed on the demersal whitefish trawl fleet. Many of the key whitefish stocks are at historically low levels, and there is pressure on the industry to adjust to remove the current excess capacity. Adjustment in the fishery is likely to favour vessels that are...
The International Plan of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity (IPOA-Capacity) was introduced in 1999 in response to growing concerns about excessive levels of fishing capacity and its impact on global fisheries resources. While debate in academic circles has focused on appropriate ways in which to measure capacity, the...
Days at sea restrictions were introduced in 2003 as part of the cod recovery strategy in the North Sea. The impact on the profitability of the fleet of the effort controls, however, is not immediately discernable, as the fishery was also subject to changes in costs, prices and stock conditions....
The world’s output of farmed fish has grown steadily over the past two decades or so. Most
notably in the UK, since the mid 1980’s, a rapid increase in farmed salmon production has taken
place. Given that many of the world’s oceans are overfished, many see aquaculture as a method...
This study investigates the economic impact to fisheries and associated sectors if wild fisheries continue operating to
2030 without considering the effects of climate change. Estimates of climate change impacts in Australian fisheries
and their associated probability distributions were derived from the literature and expert consultations. An Input-
Output model...
A concern for the consequences of bycatch and discards in fisheries has led to the implementation of
new policies and fisheries management plans aimed at their reduction in many fisheries around the
world. Such plans have been developed for the Australian Commonwealth fisheries (the most recent
bycatch action plan extends...
The concept of compensatory mitigation is well established as an approach to environmental management. In the past, mitigation programs have been used to conserve wetlands affected by development, and is proposed as a cost-effective approach to offsetting greenhouse gas emissions through reforestation programs. The concept may be equally applicable to...
Capacity reduction programs in the form of buybacks or decommissioning programs have had relatively widespread application in fisheries in the US, Europe and Australia. A common criticism of such programs is that they remove the least efficient vessels first, resulting in an increase in average efficiency of the remaining fleet....
Considerable attention has been applied to the development of models explaining how fish stocks change over space
and time, from relatively simple stock-recruitment relationships to ecosystem models with a complex food web
structure. However, in many case studies fishing effort is assumed to be exogenous and even in dynamic models...
The introduction of culture-based fisheries (CBF) in small scale irrigation systems is increasing the marginal value of water in rice farming. The amount of water that is used in Sri Lanka for rice farming could be utilised to generate more profitable non-crop economic activities such as CBF. This paper examines...