Fisheries Flashcards
(41 cards)
What are the market failures of fisheries?
Negative externalities
Improperly defined property rights
Inappropriate government intervention
What are the main policy options for managing fisheries?
Restrictions on fishing effort
Tax
Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs)
Territorial Use Rights for Fishing (TURFs)
Common Property Resource (CPR) management
T/F - Fish stocks are both renewable and exhaustible?
True
What has changed about fisheries?
Fishing effort, demand, technology has increased, but because of less fish requires more effort to catch fish
Why are fisheries monitoring and enforcement costs for fisheries high?
No single enforcement agency, coastlines difficult to monitor illegal catch and yet enforcement needed more than ever
Describe the Gordon-Schaefer model
Bioeconomic Model represents the size of the fish stock and the growth rate of the fish. Model is simplistic and avoids a lot of the complexity of nature
Purpose of the Gord-Schaefer?
Bioeconomic model study the impact of fishing effort and catch levels on fish population.
Main problems with the GS model?
Simple and static
What is the difference between the minimum viable population and the carrying capacity?
disturbance (mortality rate, birth rate, growth of fish, etc balance out)
Minimum viable population: Below this level population growth is negative (death > birth) and if stock size is below this level it will decline and become extinct.
Carrying capacity: Natural equilibrium, the population size that would persist in absence of outside
What is the most significant factor that influences relationship between population size and growth?
ecosystem’s ability to support the fish population.
When pop growth = zero this is the carrying capacity
How can the population size be sustained whilst sustaining fishing?
any population size can be sustained as long as the catch level equals exactly the growth rate corresponding to that stock size. For example, S0 can be sustained as long as the catch level is exactly G(S0).
T/F: A catch level is said to represent a sustainable yield if it equals the growth rate of the population?
True
What is the difference between S* and G(S*)?
S* is the population size with maximum sustainable yield - This is the population size where the sustainable yield (the growth rate of the population) is the greatest.
G(S*) is the maximum sustainable yield - This is the largest yield (growth rate, catch level) that can be perpetually sustained.
What are the key costs and benefits associated with fishing and the GS model?
Fishing effort, cost of fishing effort, Benefits of fishing (revenue)
Is the net benefit (profit) from fishing the highest at the level of the Maximum Sustainable Yield?
?
What is MEY and MSY, and why may not necessarily be equal?
Maximum economic yield (MEY) is where the net benefit (profit) is maximized. The maximum sustainable yield (MSY) may not equal the maximum economic yield (MEY). MEY suggests lower levels of effort and larger fish population size than MSY.
Why would a monopoly be beneficial for a fisherie?
The sole owner would consider future profits and would have an incentive to balance the current and the future value of the resource and the current and future profits.
Why is competition bad for a fisherie?
If fisheries are open-access than the fishermen will increase catch levels till the revenue exceeds the costs (i.e. till there is a profit from the increased effort). Ec
on the far right of the curve.
There will tend to be too much effort spent on too few fish
How do Fishermen impose contemporaneous costs on each other
higher than optimal level of effort/capital investment can lead to lower levels of profit (or rate of return on effort/capital investment) for other fishermen.
How is rent dissappated in competitive fisheries?
Since access is free and open, whenever there is a producer surplus (profit) to the fishermen this will attract more fishermen.
The new fishermen will increase total costs without increasing total revenues (at least to the same amount).
Only when total costs reach total revenues will the new entry stop. But at this point the rent will be dissipated.
What are the key messages of the GS model? (!)
The Gordon-Schaefer model demonstrates the inefficiency associated with open-access, and the loss in net benefit (or profit) associated with too much effort being employed in the fishery.
The model suggests that a resource management similar to a monopoly within the fishery would prevent the inefficiency associated with open-access.
How have the priorities of fisheries changed?
Initially, maximum sustainable yield was the goal of fishery management policies howver maximum economic yield has emerged as a more desirable policy goal.
Describe the inappropriate government intervention of fisheries?
Environmental objectives were compromised in order to pursue social objectives.
The policy objective was not to maintain or recover the fish stock and thus to provide sustainable levels of catch to fishermen but to ensure fishermen make profits.
Example: credits and subsidies are provided for faster and bigger boats
What are some negative externalities of fishing?
Bycatch: Sea birds, turtles, dolphins, other fish species, etc.
Impact on habitat: Use of trawling and dynamite for fishing
Changing the composition of ecosystem: Changing the balance of species can lead to consequences below/above the food chain.
