Hidden Flexibility: Institutions, Incentives, and the Margins of Selectivity in Fishing

The degree to which selectivity in fisheries is malleable to changes in incentive structures is critical for policy design. We examine data for a multispecies trawl fishery before and after a transition from management under common-pool quotas to a fishery cooperative and note a substantial shift in postcooperative catch from bycatch and toward valuable target species. We examine the margins used to affect catch composition, finding that large- and fine-scale spatial decision making and avoidance of night-fishing were critical. We argue that the poor incentives for selectivity in many systems may obscure significant flexibility in multispecies production technologies. (JEL Q22, Q28)

[1]  C. M. Paul,et al.  Fishing Revenue, Productivity and Product Choice in the Alaskan Pollock Fishery , 2009 .

[2]  F. Asche,et al.  Individual Vessel Quotas and Increased Fishing Pressure on Unregulated Species , 2007, Land Economics.

[3]  Parzival Copes,et al.  A Critical Review of the Individual Quota as a Device in Fisheries Management , 2019, Fisheries Economics.

[4]  Martin D. Smith,et al.  Economic impacts of marine reserves: the importance of spatial behavior , 2003 .

[5]  L. Crowder,et al.  Putting Longline Bycatch of Sea Turtles into Perspective , 2007, Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology.

[6]  J. Wilen,et al.  Voluntary Cooperation in the Commons? Evaluating the Sea State Program with Reduced Form and Structural Models , 2010, Land Economics.

[7]  Martin D. Smith.  The New Fisheries Economics: Incentives Across Many Margins , 2012 .

[8]  D. Holland.  Making Cents Out of Barter Data from the British Columbia Groundfish ITQ Market , 2013, Marine Resource Economics.

[9]  James N. Sanchirico,et al.  Catch-quota balancing in multispecies individual fishing quotas , 2006 .

[10]  J. Wilen,et al.  Regulation of fisheries bycatch with common-pool output quotas , 2009 .

[11]  R. Hilborn,et al.  Matching catches to quotas in a multispecies trawl fishery: targeting and avoidance behavior under individual transferable quotas , 2008 .

[12]  Ray Hilborn,et al.  Institutions, incentives and the future of fisheries , 2005, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[13]  D. Squires,et al.  Individual Transferable Quotes in a Multiproduct Common Property Industry , 1996 .

[14]  Stephen J. Hall,et al.  Managing by-catch and discards: how much progress are we making and how can we do better? , 2005 .

[15]  A. Haynie,et al.  What are we protecting? Fisher behavior and the unintended consequences of spatial closures as a fishery management tool. , 2012, Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America.

[16]  E. Gilman,et al.  Fleet communication to abate fisheries bycatch , 2006 .

[17]  Craig S. Rose,et al.  Effectiveness of a Rigid Grate for Excluding Pacific Halibut, Hippoglossus stenolepis, From Groundfish Trawl Catches , 2000 .

[18]  Gavin Fay,et al.  Fleet dynamics and fishermen behavior: lessons for fisheries managers , 2006 .

[19]  Craig S. Rose,et al.  Effective herding of flatfish by cables with minimal seafloor contact , 2010 .

[20]  A. Haynie,et al.  An expected profit model for monetizing fishing location choices , 2010 .

[21]  Rebecca L. Lewison,et al.  Understanding impacts of fisheries bycatch on marine megafauna , 2004 .

[22]  Craig S. Rose,et al.  Flatfish herding behavior in response to trawl sweeps: a comparison of diel responses to conventional sweeps and elevated sweeps , 2010 .

[23]  Elena M. Finkbeiner,et al.  Cumulative estimates of sea turtle bycatch and mortality in USA fisheries between 1990 and 2007 , 2011 .

[24]  M. Sigler,et al.  Comparison of warm and cold years on the southeastern Bering Sea shelf and some implications for the ecosystem , 2012 .

[25]  Leslie E. Papke,et al.  Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates , 1993 .

[26]  J. Wilen,et al.  Dissecting the tragedy: A spatial model of behavior in the commons , 2011 .

[27]  C. Ryer,et al.  Influence of illumination and temperature upon flatfish reactivity and herding behavior: Potential implications for trawl capture efficiency , 2006 .

[28]  J. Wilen,et al.  Unraveling the Multiple Margins of Rent Generation from Individual Transferable Quotas , 2014, Land Economics.

[29]  Sean Pascoe,et al.  Individual transferable quotas in multispecies fisheries , 1998 .

[30]  Rachel M. Jeffreys,et al.  Deep-Sea Research II , 2008 .

[31]  W. Patrick,et al.  Estimating the economic impacts of bycatch in U.S. commercial fisheries , 2013 .

[32]  D. Squires,et al.  Production quota in multiproduct pacific fisheries , 1991 .

[33]  Sean Pascoe,et al.  Estimating Targeting Ability in Multi-Species Fisheries: A Primal Multi-Output Distance Function Approach , 2007, Land Economics.

[34]  Colin W. Clark,et al.  Incentive-based Approaches to Sustainable Fisheries , 2006 .

[35]  A. Punt,et al.  Targeting ability and output controls in Australia's multi-species Northern Prawn Fishery , 2010 .

[36]  F. Asche.  Adjustment Cost and Supply Response in a Fishery: A Dynamic Revenue Function , 2009, Land Economics.

[37]  R. Myers,et al.  Diel variation in trawl catchability: is it as clear as day and night? , 1998 .

[38]  C. Gouriéroux,et al.  PSEUDO MAXIMUM LIKELIHOOD METHODS: THEORY , 1984 .

[39]  R. Lauth,et al.  Detecting temporal trends and environmentally-driven changes in the spatial distribution of bottom fishes and crabs on the eastern Bering Sea shelf , 2013 .

[40]  Rebecca L. Lewison,et al.  A review of marine mammal, sea turtle and seabird bycatch in USA fisheries and the role of policy in shaping management , 2009 .

[41]  Andrew A. Rosenberg,et al.  Wasted fishery resources: discarded by‐catch in the USA , 2005 .

[42]  K. Schnier,et al.  Common property, information, and cooperation: Commercial fishing in the Bering Sea , 2009 .

[43]  Larry B. Crowder,et al.  Fisheries Bycatch: Implications for Management , 1998 .

[44]  Z. Griliches,et al.  Econometric Models for Count Data with an Application to the Patents-R&D Relationship , 1984 .

[45]  C. Ryer.  A review of flatfish behavior relative to trawls , 2008 .

[46]  Z. Griliches,et al.  Econometric Models for Count Data with an Application to the Patents-R&D Relationship , 1984 .

[47]  A. Cameron,et al.  Microeconometrics: Methods and Applications , 2005 .

[48]  D. Squires.  Public regulation and the structure of production in multiproduct industries: an application to the New England otter trawl industry , 1987 .

[49]  James E. Wilen,et al.  Why fisheries management fails: Treating symptoms rather than the cause , 2006 .

[50]  Hsin-I Wu,et al.  A model comparison for daylength as a function of latitude and day of year , 1995 .