While rights-based management is generally purported enhance economic efficiency in fisheries and reduce over-capitalization, the social and economic outcomes due to this regulatory regime are less comprehensively understood. Relatively recently, industrialized and export-oriented Latin American fisheries began adopting individual transferable quota (ITQ) regimes to recover collapsed fish stocks. While these...
This talk will introduce this special session on coastal and marine spatial planning (MSP). An overview of how MSP is interpreted and implemented in the United States at different geographic scales will be discussed. An emphasis on data and research needs will be given as well as context for the...
Fisheries management currently claims for fisheries governance (FG), a more balanced scheme that proposes to share the power among government, civil society and economics. In Mexico and other developing countries, the lack of operational regulations has delayed its implementation. Several authors state that topological analysis is useful to identify key...
Eco-labels have been developed to face the difficulties faced by States in managing fisheries. They promote the voluntary adoption of sustainable practices, through market differentiation of sustainably produced items. In fisheries, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is the most commonly used eco-label. The label is presumed to increase the social and...
The UN Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Small-scale Fisheries, along with the Voluntary Guidelines for Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests, recognize the role of secure tenure in ensuring the livelihoods, well-being, and basic human rights of small-scale fishing (SSF) communities. Rights-based management (RBM), which works to secure...
Recently, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended that pregnant and nursing women consume at least 8 to 12 ounces of seafood per week as part of a well-balanced diet. Thus, the seafood market has been flooded with health benefit/risk information targeted at women...
Marine spatial planning (MSP) is a process that planners can use to make decisions about different, sometimes conflicting, ocean uses. The process is intended to be participatory and to facilitate the sharing of information about multiple uses of the marine environment. In the U.S. an important component of MSP is...
In the last several years a number of U.S. policies and directives have laid the foundation for Ecosystem Service Valuation (ESV) to be incorporated into ecosystem-based management (EBM), the current management paradigm for U.S. oceans and coasts. In 2010 the Final Recommendations of the Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force instructed...
This work reports on how resource rent is distributed among owners of exclusive fishing grounds in the spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) fishery of Punta Allen, Mexico. This MSC certified small-scale fishery is co-managed through Territorial User Rights. Members of the local fishing cooperative, have exclusive access to individual fishing grounds....
A behavioral study on fishery participation and fishing location choice for the West Coast Salmon fishermen was undertaken to determine the effect of salmon fishery closures on the distribution of fishermen across alternative fisheries and fishing locations. A dataset describing fishing trips from West Coast salmon vessels from 2005 to...
Acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND), initially referred to as early mortality syndrome (EMS), is an emergent bacterial disease that has resulted in substantial economic losses for the global shrimp farming industry. Its occurrence was first reported in China in 2009, rapidly spreading to Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and eventually Mexico in...
This paper is the result of a project that began with NAAFE 2015 special session on Fisheries Certification, which asked what forces are driving the market for sustainable seafood. Many previous studies looked at consumers' demand, but in this paper we looked at the entire supply chain (from producers to...
The trans-boundary migration of fish stocks creates spatial externalities, and hence, makes international cooperation beneficial. This study provides a model for the management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks and examines the relationship between fish migrations and the benefits from cooperation. Previous studies on trans-boundary fish stock management have...
When evaluating potential government interventions economists often consider whether a proposed policy is efficient. However, changes in policy can also result in changes in wealth. When politically influential individuals or groups see losses, efficient policies can become politically infeasible even if they increase wealth in aggregate. This paper examines political...
The objective of this paper is to provide an analysis of the current state of fisheries subsidies worldwide, and how they are likely to affect the sustainability of fisheries. More specifically, I will review previous investigations of global subsidies issues, and give a brief overview of the impact of subsidies...
The goal of this research was to characterize the trade-offs between profitability and sustainability when managing a valuable commercial fishery. The Florida finfish fishery generates over $75 million in annual dockside value; the snapper-grouper complex constitutes over half of that total. Currently, federal stock assessment procedures focus on stock size...
This research combines a utility-theory consistent model of demand for recreational fishing trips with an age-structured stock dynamics model to provide policy relevant advice to managers of the groundfish fishery in the Northeast United States. We provide an overview of the model and describe the challenges encountered with using this...
The Biodiversity Impact Mitigation (BIM) hierarchy provides an overarching conservation framework for bycatch reduction, and more broadly for biodiversity conservation. This framework includes four steps, which are implemented sequentially to: (i) avoid and (ii) minimize impacts; (iii) rehabilitate/restore impacted biodiversity; and (iv), compensate such impacts, usually elsewhere. The first three steps...
The vaquita, a critically endangered marine mammal, is a bycatch to shrimp strawl and gillnet fisheries in the upper Gulf of California. Reducing vaquita bycatch, however, is complex. The fisheries are smaller-scale and major contributors of income and employment to coastal communities. Although tourism is increasingly important, fishing remains an...
This presentation provides an overview of a session presentation held at the NAAFE Forum 2017 in March, 2017. The title of the session was: Rights-Based Management. The title of the presentation was: We Need to Restore Ourselves First: The Story of El Manglito.
In this paper we characterize changes in the level and spatial distribution of fishing effort during the extreme ocean temperature event known by oceanographers, climate scientists, and the public as “the Blob.” The Blob was an unprecedented marine heatwave that occurred off of the Pacific Coast of North America from...
Achieving economic viability is an important goal when it comes to developing policies for sustainable fisheries management, especially for small-scale fisheries (SSF). SSF are vital for many coastal communities, however, often economically and politically marginalized. Here, we develop and estimate what we denote as ‘basic economic viability’ of SSF, using...
Fisheries subsidies have been roughly estimated to be as high as $35 billion worldwide, of which about $20 billion have been categorized as capacity-enhancing subsidies that directly contribute to overfishing. Since 2001, the necessity for reforming fishing subsidies has been part of the discussions in the World Trade Organization (WTO)....
Influence of the Skipper Effect in fishing efficiency of a mixed fishing fleet, looking at a Mexican case study. Understanding the factors that define technical efficiency in a fleet is a requirement to define strategies to regulate the fishing pressure. In industrial and semi-industrial fleets more weight has been given...
The Resource Evaluation and Assessment Division’s Social Sciences Branch (SSB) in the NOAA Northeast region is preparing for an external review in 2017 to evaluate its programs alignment between the strategic objectives of SSB, NEFSC, NMFS, and NOAA. In previous SSB and NEFSC wide reviews, much attention has been drawn...
The Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper IFQ Program (Program) was the first catch share management program implemented in the Gulf of Mexico. IFQ management was implemented to reduce overcapacity and eliminate the problems associated with derby style fishing. The Program was successful, the number of vessels harvesting red snapper decreased...
Management objectives of vulnerable fish species must focus on maintaining healthy population status. Hence, reference points should be constrained to ensure recruitment. We assessed bioeconomic reference points for the totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi), an endemic fish to the Gulf of California, reaching lengths of 2 m and 25 years. Totoaba fishing...
As anthropogenic changes interact with natural climate cycles, the variability of marine ecosystems is likely to increase. This variability influences the behaviour of fishers, which can affect the profitability and sustainability of stocks and may have wider economic and ecological effects. We use data from the US West Coast salmon...
Fishing for Pacific Hake Merluccius productus in the Gulf of California is carried out by shrimp trawlers. When the shrimp fishing season ends, these boats shift to catching Pacific Hake and other finfish. The Pacific Hake fishery is relatively new and has the potential to grow as an industry. Therefore,...
A significant proportion of catch by artisanal fishers in Ghana is sold through wealthy middle-women, known as “fish mothers,” who often pre-finance fishing trips. This study examined the determinants of catch sales through fish mothers. Data used came from artisanal fishermen at major coastal fishing communities in Ghana. The effects...
Seafood markets are the inflection point in the fish-to-food transformation, and act as windows into revealed consumer preferences for seafood selection. These preferences have far-reaching implications for fisheries management, food security, and marine conservation. This study reveals consumer preferences for seafood in San Diego County by quantifying the relationship between...
This presentation provides an overview of a Special Session presentation held at the NAAFE Forum 2017 in March, 2017. The title of the special session was: Saving the World's Most Endangered Marine Mammal. The session was organized by Oriana Poindexter.
This presentation provides an overview of a Special Session presentation held at the NAAFE Forum 2017 in March, 2017. The title of the special session was: Saving the World's Most Endangered Marine Mammal. The session was organized by Oriana Poindexter.
This presentation provides an overview of a Special Session presentation held at the NAAFE Forum 2017 in March, 2017. The title of the special session was: Saving the World's Most Endangered Marine Mammal. The session was organized by Oriana Poindexter.
This presentation provides an overview of a Special Session presentation held at the NAAFE Forum 2017 in March, 2017. The title of the special session was: Saving the World's Most Endangered Marine Mammal. The session was organized by Oriana Poindexter.
This presentation provides an overview of a Special Session presentation held at the NAAFE Forum 2017 in March, 2017. The title of the special session was: Saving the World's Most Endangered Marine Mammal. The session was organized by Oriana Poindexter.
This presentation provides an overview of a Special Session presentation held at the NAAFE Forum 2017 in March, 2017. The title of the special session was: Saving the World's Most Endangered Marine Mammal. The session was organized by Oriana Poindexter.
Analyzing the socioeconomic impacts of fisheries management requires a distinctive array of information that has so far been less developed than the biological data used in stock assessment. In the case of the European Common Fisheries Policy the project SOCIOEC studies the socioeconomic effects of the new European fisheries management...
As part of an effort to describe the recent history and socioeconomics of a small commercial fishery, we were provided access to a large, multi-faceted data set. In using those data, we faced a number of challenges related to data management, data protection and confidentiality, and needed to develop effective...
Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) groundfish fisheries are hugely productive with 2008 – 2014 harvests averaging 1.6 million tons and generating $1.95 billion annually. The BSAI also hosts a commercial halibut fishery with 2013 landings of 3,500 tons and revenues of $41.5 million. Downward trends in halibut biomass combined with continued...
Ecologists warn that the rapid evolution occurring as a result of high-intensity commercial fishing could have potentially disastrous economic and ecological effects. The evolution of economically relevant life-history traits in fish, which can occur due to the harvesting pressure from commercial fisheries, can irreversibly diminish fisheries yields and ecological services....
Choosing a policy instrument is a strategic choice. In the case of fisheries interactions with marine mammals and sea turtles, the preferred policy instrument has been a command-and-control approach such as effort reductions (e.g. area closures) and/or technology standards (e.g. gear modifications), even though market based approaches are available. Since...
Recreational fishing for popular species like red snapper and grouper in the Gulf of Mexico follows a pattern that is well known in commercial fisheries: fishing under regulated open access promotes short, unpredictable seasons, shrinking bag limits, and large and persistent overharvests. With federal fishing seasons at all-time lows and...
Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) systems have been used to control harvests and increase fisheries’ economic efficiency; however, they do not eliminate competitive fishing which can result in stock and congestion externalities that are especially apparent when resources are spatially heterogeneous within the controlled region of the ITQ system. These externalities...
The opening and closing of the shellfish harvest area inevitably influences the market, particularly the exvessel prices that harvesters receive. Without a better understanding of shellfish market and its behaviors, it is impractical to determine the impact of management policies on the market as well as the fishery resources. Using...
This paper investigates the impact of fishery subsidies on resource stocks in 23 OECD countries for the period 1996-2011. Country level subsidy data is matched with a resource stock index prepared by the Sea Around Us Project. Since the impact of subsidies is likely to vary by type, subsidies are...
In 2013 a stock of sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) was discovered in northern shelf of Yucatan. A survey calculated a biomass of 17,600 tons. The species has an attractive price for local fishers, therefore, in order to avoid the “race for sea cucumbers” and the collapse of the stock, authorities...
From 2000 onwards, the United States saw an increasing trend for the shellfish aquaculture practices especially along the Northeast coast. Despite the supporting majority of public regarding the shellfish aquaculture operations, these operations are sometimes opposed by local communities claiming the devaluation of housing property due to the construction of...