All animals that interact with fishing gear are not necessarily captured, and all animals that are captured are not necessarily retained. Fishing practices and gear configuration, management regulations, and markets dictate which animals ultimately are retained or discarded. The impact of a fishery and the efficacy of management regulations can...
Since 1999, the scallop fisheries have been granted access to closed areas on Georges Bank, and the
access programs have been managed through individual vessel quotas for scallops, and a common-pool
total allowable catch (TAC) for yellowtail flounder bycatch. The scallop resource is neither overfished
and nor is overfishing occurring,...
New Zealands quota management system is based on transferable
harvesting rights operating within regulated allowable harvest limits. The
system has evolved since its implementation in 1986. One particular
challenge has been the design of mechanisms to encourage the balancing of
catch against quota. A model is developed for a target...
The US Magnuson-Stevens Act authorizes the use of onboard observers to
monitor commercial fisheries catch and bycatch (PFMC 2003). A question
of concern in implementing an observer program is that of the appropriate
level of observer coverage. Current practice varies by fishery; for example,
the California-Oregon drift gillnet fishery for...
After salmon bycatch levels reached record levels in 2006 and 2007 in the
Bering Sea pollock fishery, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council
(NPFMC) began consideration of a hard cap that would close the fishery if
it were reached. The NPFMC asked for input from economists at the
National Marine...
The bycatch problem has remained troubling and persistent, even in
fisheries that have rationalized their target fisheries. The Alaskan Pollock
fishery is an example of a fishery struggling to contain the bycatch of
salmon in spite of a transformation of incentives associated with a
harvester coop system in the target...
Implementation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)
generates costs to both the public and private sectors. While many of the
costs are complementary, some result in potential tradeoffs between
various groups incurring these costs. Under the MMPA, if estimated
bycatch of a species exceeds its Potential Biological Removal...
This paper develops a count data model of target species and bycatch
production for an arbitrary number of species that handles correlation
between species and over time. The model is applied to a large observer
dataset for fishing trips taken from 1990 to 2008 for roughly 150 vessels
participating in...
In the quest to limit the bycatch of non-target species, marine protected
areas (MPAs) have been frequently utilized. MPAs are popular with
ecologists and fishery managers because of their relative ease of
administration, habitat protection benefits, and the widespread acceptance
of MPAs as an instrument of choice for the ecosystem...
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...