Property Rights in Fisheries: Iceland’s Experience with ITQs

The fundamental problem of economic inefficiency in fisheries, the so-called common property problem, may be seen to be caused by inadequate or lacking property rights in the underlying natural resources. The introduction of Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) into fisheries represents an attempt to correct this failure. ITQs, however, are not property rights in the relevant natural resources, i.e. the fish stocks and their habitat. They are merely harvesting rights and thus far from ideal as property rights. Nevertheless, ITQs have been introduced in numerous fisheries around the world, apparently with generally, even consistently, good economic results. This paper outlines the basic theory of property rights and the strengths and weaknesses of ITQs as property rights in fisheries. The paper goes on to discuss the Icelandic ITQ system and compares its property rights value with that of the New Zealand ITQ system and the Norwegian IQ system. Finally, the paper reviews some measures of the economic outcomes of the ITQ system in Iceland.     

Individual transferable quotas: theory and practice

The paper examines the theory and practice of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) in fisheries. Using the experience of several countries, a number of ITQ programmes are examined with respect to fisher compliance and their effect upon economic efficiency, employment, the harvesting shares of fishers, cost recovery and rent capture.

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Biodiversity and exploitation of the main fish stocks in the Norwegian - Barents Sea ecosystem

Juvenile herring and capelin are the main stocks of plankton feeders in the Barents Sea, the cod is the dominant predator. Warm climate favours recruitment of herring and cod, but large stocks of juvenile herring hamper survival of the capelin fry. Since the early 1970s, the herring stock has been grossly overexploited, which could have led to an imbalance in the state of the predatorprey relationships in the Barents Sea. In the 1970s and early 80s, however, cod could feed on capelin which had excellent growth and recruitment conditions when the herring was absent. The consequences of the reduced herring stock were triggered in the mid 1980s, when excellent recruitment conditions for herring and cod occurred. Three abundant year classes of cod were recruited, but the herring stock was not sufficiently large to take full advantage of the favourable recruitment conditions. Given the lack of juvenile herring and a reduced capelin stock, the rapidly growing cod stock grazed down all other available prey species in the area, including its own progeny, and starved cod, seabirds and seals have in later years appeared on the north Norwegian coast. The capelin fishery collapsed, and the traditional coastal cod fisheries have been struck by the most serious crisis on record.     

Fish, Fact and Fantasy: a Long View

This paper suggests ways forward from the widely perceived present failures of fishery assessment and management. A history of fishery yield modelling is presented from the carefree days of the 1950s to the depressing series of stock collapses and depletions of the 1980s. Underlying this gruesome story has been the failure of management by quotas to arrest overcapacity in fishing power, the lack of robust and informative reference points and the inadequacy of methods dealing with some multispecies fisheries. The paper refines the use of the concept of Fext, defined as the minimum value of F in a self-regenerating yield model that leads to eventual extinction in a family of yield curves generated with a range of stock recruitment curves. Model reconstructions for North Sea cod and Icelandic herring make evident calamitous losses in catches forgone as result of the failure of rational management. An optimistic agenda that may achieve more effective fishery management in the future is presented. In some ways, we may have been trying to be too clever. A simple management system based on careful monitoring of fishing effort, biological targets such as F95, and exploitation of a diversity of fish resources may suffice to avert further disaster and hedge against uncertainty.     

Bycatch quotas in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery: can they work?

Bycatch of unwanted, prohibited, or protected species is a problem in most commercial fisheries. Trawl fisheries are particularly prone to bycatch problems because trawls are not species-selective. In this paper, I review the history of finfish bycatch research in the Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery and explore the use of quotas to reduce finfish bycatch by examining four fisheries that currently use bycatch quotas: (1) the arrow squid trawl fishery of New Zealand, which uses fleet bycatch quotas for sea lion bycatch, (2) the Alaskan groundfish trawl fisheries, which use fleet quotas under a vessel incentive program for prohibited species, (3) the groundfish trawl fishery of British Columbia, Canada which uses individual vessel bycatch quotas for prohibited species, and (4) the multi-species trawl fisheries of New Zealand, which use catch balancing, or individual transferable quotas, for most commercially landed species. Based on the bycatch quota experiences in these fisheries, elements of successful bycatch quota programs include: (1) individual accountability, in the form of individual or cooperative bycatch quotas, rather than fleet quotas, (2) 100% observer coverage, (3) relatively small, manageable fleets, (4) limited landing ports that can be easily monitored, particularly if observer coverage is incomplete, (5) reliable enforcement, (6) penalties that are true disincentives, and (7) some flexibility in the system for fishermen to have alternatives to manage their bycatch. The Gulf of Mexico shrimp trawl fishery, with an estimated 20,000 licensed boats, is currently too large for individual bycatch quotas to be practical, although individual or cooperative bycatch quotas would be excellent strategies for reducing the bycatch of a smaller fleet. Mobile closed areas might be beneficial for reducing the bycatch of particular species, but these short-term closures would require real-time monitoring of bycatch rates and vessel monitoring systems on all vessels. However, under any management regime, incentives and/or rigorously enforced disincentives are the key to successful bycatch reduction.     

Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic inventory of the most abundant demersal fish captured by benthic gears in southwestern Iceland (North Atlantic)

Stable isotopes (δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N) were used to examine the origin of organic matter for the most representative demersal species of the SW Icelandic fishery, accounting for over 70% of landings of those species in the North Atlantic. Samples were collected during a 2-week period in early September 2004 from landings and directly during fishing cruises. Stable isotopes showed that particulate organic matter and sedimentary organic matter were at the base of the food web and appeared to fill two different compartments: the pelagic and the benthic. The pelagic realm was composed of only capelin and sandeel; krill and redfish occupied an intermediate position between pelagic and benthic realms; while anglerfish, haddock, cod and ling resulted as the true demersal species while tusk, rays and plaice were strongly linked to the benthic habitat.     

Combining control measures for more effective management of fisheries under uncertainty: quotas, effort limitation and protected areas

We consider combinations of three types of control measures for the management of fisheries when the input information for policy decisions is uncertain. The methods considered include effort controls, catch quotas and area closures. We simulated a hypothetical fishery loosely based on the Icelandic cod fishery, using a simple spatially explicit dynamic model. We compared the performance with respect to conserving the resource and economic return for each type of control measure alone and in combination. In general, combining more than one type of primary direct control on fishing provides a greater buffer to uncertainty than any single form of fishery control alone. Combining catch quota control with a large closed area is a most effective system for reducing the risk of stock collapse and maintaining both short and long-term economic performance. Effort controls can also be improved by adding closed areas to the management scheme. We recommend that multiple control methods be used wherever possible and that closed areas should be used to buffer uncertainty. To be effective, these closed areas must be large and exclude all principal gears to provide real protection from fishing mortality.     

Bio‐economic analysis of the Mar Menor (Murcia,SE Spain) small‐scale lagoon fishery

An integrated fisheries management tool based on a bio‐economic model was applied to the demersal fishery in the Mar Menor coastal lagoon in SE Spain, with the objective of exploring solutions to ensure the sustainability of this activity. The hypothesis is that excess harvesting in recent years by fishers trying to offset growing production costs has led to the inefficient use of lagoon fishery resources. The authors established the basic bio‐economic conditions of the fishery in 2012 by means of field sampling and personal interviews with producers, and analyzed the response of several biological and economic indicators (target species biomass and yield, fleet profits) to a management scenario based on limiting the fishing season of one of the main types of fishing gear (fish traps, locally known as ‘paranzas’). Results show that a reduction in fishing mortality of two overexploited species (Sparus aurata and Lithognathus mormyrus) will help recover the biomass of these stocks by more than 40% as well as increase the economic value of the fishery, with profits increasing by 17% over a 4‐year period.     

The impact of subsidies on the ecological sustainability and future profits from North Sea fisheries

Background

This study examines the impact of subsidies on the profitability and ecological stability of the North Sea fisheries over the past 20 years. It shows the negative impact that subsidies can have on both the biomass of important fish species and the possible profit from fisheries. The study includes subsidies in an ecosystem model of the North Sea and examines the possible effects of eliminating fishery subsidies.

Methodology/Principal Findings

Hindcast analysis between 1991 and 2003 indicates that subsidies reduced the profitability of the fishery even though gross revenue might have been high for specific fisheries sectors. Simulations seeking to maximise the total revenue between 2004 and 2010 suggest that this can be achieved by increasing the effort of Nephrops trawlers, beam trawlers, and the pelagic trawl-and-seine fleet, while reducing the effort of demersal trawlers. Simulations show that ecological stability can be realised by reducing the effort of the beam trawlers, Nephrops trawlers, pelagic- and demersal trawl-and-seine fleets. This analysis also shows that when subsidies are included, effort will always be higher for all fleets, because it effectively reduces the cost of fishing.

Conclusions/Significance

The study found that while removing subsidies might reduce the total catch and revenue, it increases the overall profitability of the fishery and the total biomass of commercially important species. For example, cod, haddock, herring and plaice biomass increased over the simulation when optimising for profit, and when optimising for ecological stability, the biomass for cod, plaice and sole also increased. When subsidies are eliminated, the study shows that rather than forcing those involved in the fishery into the red, fisheries become more profitable, despite a decrease in total revenue due to a loss of subsidies from the government.     

Temporal Dynamics of Top Predators Interactions in the Barents Sea

The Barents Sea system is often depicted as a simple food web in terms of number of dominant feeding links. The most conspicuous feeding link is between the Northeast Arctic cod Gadus morhua, the world''s largest cod stock which is presently at a historical high level, and capelin Mallotus villosus. The system also holds diverse seabird and marine mammal communities. Previous diet studies may suggest that these top predators (cod, bird and sea mammals) compete for food particularly with respect to pelagic fish such as capelin and juvenile herring (Clupea harengus), and krill. In this paper we explored the diet of some Barents Sea top predators (cod, Black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla, Common guillemot Uria aalge, and Minke whale Balaenoptera acutorostrata). We developed a GAM modelling approach to analyse the temporal variation diet composition within and between predators, to explore intra- and inter-specific interactions. The GAM models demonstrated that the seabird diet is temperature dependent while the diet of Minke whale and cod is prey dependent; Minke whale and cod diets depend on the abundance of herring and capelin, respectively. There was significant diet overlap between cod and Minke whale, and between kittiwake and guillemot. In general, the diet overlap between predators increased with changes in herring and krill abundances. The diet overlap models developed in this study may help to identify inter-specific interactions and their dynamics that potentially affect the stocks targeted by fisheries.     

The Role of Research in Fisheries Management: The Conservation of Dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific and the Exploitation of Southern Bluefin Tuna in the Southern Ocean

This article uses two case studies to assess the role of research in policy formation and fishery management. One study focuses on measures to limit the mortality of dolphins taken when tuna are harvested in the eastern tropical Pacific. The other studies measures taken to limit harvests of Southern Bluefin Tuna. Both of these fisheries involve fugitive resources and transboundary resources spreading across both national exclusive economic zones and the high seas. Both fisheries were initially based on open access, but public policy has led to greater exclusive use through individual transferable quotas for Southern Bluefin Tuna and dolphin mortality limits. A number of policy conclusions are drawn.     

SMART: A Spatially Explicit Bio-Economic Model for Assessing and Managing Demersal Fisheries,with an Application to Italian Trawlers in the Strait of Sicily

Management of catches, effort and exploitation pattern are considered the most effective measures to control fishing mortality and ultimately ensure productivity and sustainability of fisheries. Despite the growing concerns about the spatial dimension of fisheries, the distribution of resources and fishing effort in space is seldom considered in assessment and management processes. Here we propose SMART (Spatial MAnagement of demersal Resources for Trawl fisheries), a tool for assessing bio-economic feedback in different management scenarios. SMART combines information from different tasks gathered within the European Data Collection Framework on fisheries and is composed of: 1) spatial models of fishing effort, environmental characteristics and distribution of demersal resources; 2) an Artificial Neural Network which captures the relationships among these aspects in a spatially explicit way and uses them to predict resources abundances; 3) a deterministic module which analyzes the size structure of catches and the associated revenues, according to different spatially-based management scenarios. SMART is applied to demersal fishery in the Strait of Sicily, one of the most productive fisheries of the Mediterranean Sea. Three of the main target species are used as proxies for the whole range exploited by trawlers. After training, SMART is used to evaluate different management scenarios, including spatial closures, using a simulation approach that mimics the recent exploitation patterns. Results evidence good model performance, with a noteworthy coherence and reliability of outputs for the different components. Among others, the main finding is that a partial improvement in resource conditions can be achieved by means of nursery closures, even if the overall fishing effort in the area remains stable. Accordingly, a series of strategically designed areas of trawling closures could significantly improve the resource conditions of demersal fisheries in the Strait of Sicily, also supporting sustainable economic returns for fishermen if not applied simultaneously for different species.     

Fisheries management in practice: review of 13 commercially important fish stocks

This paper comparatively reviews several commercially important fish stocks, their state and their management in various regions of the world including Japanese anchovy, Bay of Biscay anchovy, North Sea sandeel, North Sea herring, Icelandic cod, Barents Sea cod, South African cape hakes, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon, southern bluefin tuna, Pacific halibut, Greenland halibut and Patagonian toothfish. The reviewed fish stocks are systemized in three categories: (1) stock properties and status; (2) management structure and objectives; and (3) management advice. We gather evidence to outline qualities of management regimes that are recommended and highlight those that most often fail. Robust management, biological limits (reference points), implementation and consensus are critical points that separate successful and unsuccessful management regimes. We evaluate each fish stock’s management performance relative to its management objectives and current conservation issues. Furthermore, we point out the importance of stakeholder involvement in fisheries management as well as the problems that international fisheries commissions face through examples from the case studies. Management successes tended to be single-nation and single-stock fisheries with capacity control and clear stakeholder involvement. Fisheries with fleet overcapacity, unclear objectives and illegal activity characterized the case studies with management problems.     

Interdependence in the bay of fundy herring fishery

Abstract

This paper examines the interdependence of the Canadian and American herring fisheries in the Bay of Fundy over the period 1965–85. The unique aspect of this fishery is that vessels of both countries land fresh herring in either country. For most years the processing sector of Maine has relied heavily on the Canadian primary sector to supply fresh herring. The benefits to both countries demonstrated in this paper provide an example of the possible gains from free trade.     

Effects of alternative prey on predation intensity from herring Clupea harengus and sandeel Ammodytes marinus on capelin Mallotus villosus larvae in the Barents Sea

Stomach contents from lesser sandeel Ammodytes marinus and herring Clupea harengus caught at one and three stations, respectively, were analysed to investigate predation intensity on capelin Mallotus villosus larvae. Most capelin larvae were found in the anterior sections of the stomachs close to the oesophagus, indicating that rapid digestion rates of larvae reduced the abundance in the posterior sections. The anterior sections of the stomachs had alternating layers of either copepods or capelin larvae and krill. This shows that the individual predators switched between feeding on either copepods or on krill and capelin larvae. A total of 549 capelin larvae was found in 440 fish stomachs. Capelin larvae were found in 20% of the sandeel stomachs, and 24, 34 and 62% of the stomachs from the three herring stations, respectively. Many of the predator stomachs contained more than five larvae, and up to 28 larvae were found in one herring stomach. The herring appeared to prey selectively on the largest capelin larvae, and the number of larvae per stomach was much higher in stomachs where krill had recently been eaten than where copepods were dominant. The predation intensity measured in this study is much higher than reported in earlier studies, and it is suggested that the predators were feeding using a searching image, and that the concentrations of alternative prey (copepods and krill) varied around a switching threshold.     

The Fishery Performance Indicators: A Management Tool for Triple Bottom Line Outcomes

Pursuit of the triple bottom line of economic, community and ecological sustainability has increased the complexity of fishery management; fisheries assessments require new types of data and analysis to guide science-based policy in addition to traditional biological information and modeling. We introduce the Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs), a broadly applicable and flexible tool for assessing performance in individual fisheries, and for establishing cross-sectional links between enabling conditions, management strategies and triple bottom line outcomes. Conceptually separating measures of performance, the FPIs use 68 individual outcome metrics—coded on a 1 to 5 scale based on expert assessment to facilitate application to data poor fisheries and sectors—that can be partitioned into sector-based or triple-bottom-line sustainability-based interpretative indicators. Variation among outcomes is explained with 54 similarly structured metrics of inputs, management approaches and enabling conditions. Using 61 initial fishery case studies drawn from industrial and developing countries around the world, we demonstrate the inferential importance of tracking economic and community outcomes, in addition to resource status.     

Application of marine reserves to reef fisheries management

Abstract Establishing permanent ‘no-take’ marine reserves, areas where fishing and all other extractive activities are prohibited, is an attractive but under-utilized tool for fisheries management. Marine reserves could potentially deal with many fishery problems that are not effectively addressed by other traditional management measures; they also offer numerous social, economic, and scientific benefits not directly related to fisheries. Limited but growing research has shown beneficial biological and economic effects of marine reserves on fisheries. More research is needed, especially at larger scales, to determine the ideal marine reserve size, number and location necessary to optimize fisheries productivity and resource conservation. Sufficient evidence is available to justify the expanded use of marine reserves in an adaptive approach to fisheries management.     

Movement,site fidelity and connectivity in a top marine predator,the killer whale

Movement, site fidelity and connectivity have important consequences for the evolution of population structure and therefore the conservation and management of a species. In this study photographs of naturally marked killer whales collected from sites across the Northeast Atlantic are used to estimate fidelity to sampling locations and movement between locations, expressed as transition probabilities, pt, using maximum likelihood methods. High transition probabilities suggest there is high inter-annual site fidelity to all locations, and large-scale movement between the spawning and wintering grounds of both Norwegian and Iceland stocks of Atlantic herring. There was no evidence of movement between the Norwegian herring grounds and Icelandic herring grounds, or between the mackerel fishing grounds and the herring fishing grounds. Thus the movement of predictable and abundant prey resources can lead to intrinsic isolation in this species We also find movement between the Northern Isles, Scotland and East Iceland. An association network indicates that killer whales predating seals around the Northern Isles, Scotland are linked to the community of killer whales that follow the Icelandic summer-spawning herring. This adds support to existing evidence of a broad niche width in some populations.     

A dataset from bottom trawl survey around Taiwan

Bottom trawl fishery is one of the most important coastal fisheries in Taiwan both in production and economic values. However, its annual production started to decline due to overfishing since the 1980s. Its bycatch problem also damages the fishery resource seriously. Thus, the government banned the bottom fishery within 3 nautical miles along the shoreline in 1989. To evaluate the effectiveness of this policy, a four year survey was conducted from 2000-2003, in the waters around Taiwan and Penghu (Pescadore) Islands, one region each year respectively. All fish specimens collected from trawling were brought back to lab for identification, individual number count and body weight measurement. These raw data have been integrated and established in Taiwan Fish Database (http://fishdb.sinica.edu.tw). They have also been published through TaiBIF (http://taibif.tw), FishBase and GBIF (website see below). This dataset contains 631 fish species and 3,529 records, making it the most complete demersal fish fauna and their temporal and spatial distributional data on the soft marine habitat in Taiwan.