Property Rights and the Management of Multiple Use Fisheries

Arguments in favor of adopting rights-based management strategies have been developed primarily in the context of commercial fisheries and have focused on increasing the profitability of catcher vessel operations and reducing the incentive to deplete fish stocks. Relatively little attention has been given to the effects that alternative management regimes could have on the profitability of processing and support service businesses, consumer surplus, or to the interface between commercial fishing, sport fishing, and other use and nonuse demands for fishery resources. Although there is often congruence among users with respect to stock management and rule enforcement objectives, other objectives are mutually incompatible. This paper begins with a simple conceptual analysis of the effects of alternative regimes for management of a charter-based recreational fishery on the magnitude of net benefits in the sport fishery and in an associated commercial fishery. A theoretical framework for identifying the optimal commercial-sport allocation and the optimal sustainable yield is developed in the subsequent section. The final section reports the results of an empirically based comparative static simulation of commercial and charter-based sport fishing for halibut off Alaska

PARTICIPATION DECISIONS, ANGLER WELFARE, AND THE REGIONAL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF SPORTFISHING

We link a stochastic binary choice model of individual decisions to participate in the marine sport fisheries in Cook Inlet, Alaska, with a simulation- based sample enumeration procedure for aggregating estimates of individual angler welfare and a regionally adjusted zip code-level input-output model of regional economic activity. The result is a behaviorally based model for predicting changes in angler welfare and regional economic activity occasioned by changes in the demand for sportfishing that arise from changes in trip costs or the expected number, size, or mix of species caught. The advantages of this approach are that: changes in angler participation are determined by variables that are observable, predictable, or subject to management control; participation reflects declining marginal utility, and substitution and complementary effects across trip attributes; estimates of changes in aggregate angler welfare and changes in regional economic impacts are derived from changes in individual participation probabilities.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Political Economy and Profit Maximization in the Eastern Bering Sea Fishery for Walleye Pollock

Despite their apparent economic benefits to harvesters, Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs) have only been adopted in three U.S. fisheries: Mid-Atlantic surf clam and ocean quahog; South Atlantic wreckfish; and, North Pacific halibut and sablefish. During the 1996 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Congress temporarily blocked implementation of additional IFQ programs in U.S. fisheries. This Congressional action led directly to the emergence of a new institutional structure, the fishing cooperative. Cooperatives offer the advantage of eliminating production externalities that may remain under an IFQ program with relatively large owner classes. Development of IFQ programs appears to be increasingly overwhelmed by the proliferation of both equity concerns and seemingly interminable rent-seeking behavior—both issues that can effectively block adoption of IFQs. By reducing the scope of the equity issues acknowledged, the cooperative alternative narrows the pool of claimants and modifies the behavior of the remainder so as to make implementation more likely. Ironically, while IFQs are widely thought to be best designed at the local/regional level, part of the appeal of the cooperative model is that it appears to shortcut the often-protracted nature of the local/regional political process

Alaska’s Sablefish Fishery

Alaska is the world’s principal supplier of Sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria a buttery-flavored whitefish greatly prized in Japan. Sablefish are distributed from Baja California to western Japan but the majority of commercial catches are from the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. Landings volume and value of this long-lived demersal fish are comparable to those of the better-known Pacific Halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis. Like Pacific Halibut, Alaska region catches of Sablefish are managed under an Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) program implemented in 1995. We present a simultaneous equation market model for Sablefish and use the model to examine linkages between landings volume and exvessel prices and revenues including the sensitivity of Alaska exvessel price and revenue to changes in landings, to changes resulting from the implementation of IFQs and to changes in the Japanese economy. Model simulations indicate that markets could absorb substantially more Sablefish than can be sustainably harvested from the current stock of Alaska region Sablefish. However, sluggishness in the Japanese economy has resulted in overall downward pressure on Alaska region Sablefish exvessel prices. Model simulations indicate that IFQ implementation in this fishery significantly increased exvessel revenues, beyond what they would have increased, as a consequence of longer seasons that resulted from an end of the race-for-fish. In addition, we find that IFQ implementation has helped buffer the fishery against revenue losses associated with reduced catch limits triggered by the decline of Sablefish biomass in the Alaska region

An Economic Discussion of the Marine Sport Fisheries in Central and Lower Cook Inlet

This paper reports on the valuation of the marine halibut and salmon sport fishery of central and lower Cook Inlet, Alaska. The project was designed to simulate changes in economic value and regional economic impacts for environmental analysis but has also been used in fishery allocation management. This study develops a predictive model of participation rate changes for estimation of net benefits to anglers and links the resulting demand function to a regional input-output model for determining expenditure-based impacts of marine sportfishing to the Kenai Peninsula economy. The participation rate model is driven by changes in mean sport fishery attributes such as the expected catch rate and weight for various species as well as the average cost of a fishing day. The total estimated new money brought into the Kenai Peninsula as a result of 259,615 saltwater angler days in central and lower Cook Inlet was $37.4 million in 1997, and the total compensating variation,$25.4 million. Simulations involving changes to sportfishing trip attributes from a 1997 baseline trip are examined and reported in the paper.Keywords: sportfishing, halibut, participation-rate, charter, impact analysis, consumer surplus

Mechanisms and models for industry engagement in collaborative research in commercial fisheries

Data and insights from fishers are essential sources of information to advance understanding of fishery and ecosystem dynamics. Incorporating fisher and industry knowledge holds prospects for improving marine science and fisheries management. We address cooperative research in the context of collaboration between fishers, scientists, industries, universities, and agencies to develop applied research to understand marine ecosystems, inform fishery management, enhance sustainability, govern resource use, and investigate social-economic dynamics. We leverage the insights of more than 100 research scientists, fisheries managers, industry representatives, and fishers to outline actionable recommendations for effective approaches and mechanisms to integrate industry data, perspectives, and insights in fisheries science. We also highlight opportunities and address challenges and limitations to such collaboration

International Consensus Statement on Rhinology and Allergy: Rhinosinusitis

Background: The 5 years since the publication of the first International Consensus Statement on Allergy and Rhinology: Rhinosinusitis (ICAR‐RS) has witnessed foundational progress in our understanding and treatment of rhinologic disease. These advances are reflected within the more than 40 new topics covered within the ICAR‐RS‐2021 as well as updates to the original 140 topics. This executive summary consolidates the evidence‐based findings of the document. Methods: ICAR‐RS presents over 180 topics in the forms of evidence‐based reviews with recommendations (EBRRs), evidence‐based reviews, and literature reviews. The highest grade structured recommendations of the EBRR sections are summarized in this executive summary. Results: ICAR‐RS‐2021 covers 22 topics regarding the medical management of RS, which are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Additionally, 4 topics regarding the surgical management of RS are grade A/B and are presented in the executive summary. Finally, a comprehensive evidence‐based management algorithm is provided. Conclusion: This ICAR‐RS‐2021 executive summary provides a compilation of the evidence‐based recommendations for medical and surgical treatment of the most common forms of RS

Annual Research Activities, 2004

The research activities described in this document were supported by the Utah State University Economics Research Institute in 2004. The Economics Research Institute was founded in 1965 to provide training opportunities for graduate students and to assist in the solution of local, regional, and national economic problems. UAES has provided ongoing support for the ERI since 1972 under project number UTA-686. The project has provided the Department of Economics with resources to search out new developments in economics to analyze new and complex issues in public and private decision making processes. Boldface type is used to identify Utah State University Economics Department faculty and specialists; student names are underlined

Economic Principles of Sustainable Fisheries Management

Economic prescriptions for the sustainable management of fisheries have typically been framed in the context of commercial fisheries. Fishery management failures have been characterized as a consequence of disjointedness between individually rational decisions and globally sensible outcomes-the tragedy of the commons. The solutions proposed by economists flow from the insight that rational self-interest can lead to socially beneficial outcomes when ownership is secure and prices reflect the opportunity cost of resource use. Theoretical and empirical analyses have demonstrated that sole ownership, individual quotas, territorial use rights, fishing cooperatives, and common property management regimes can promote biologically and economically sustainable fisheries. Nevertheless, implementation of these solutions has met with resistance, due in part to the impossibility of uncoupling species within ecological systems and conflict between the proposed solutions and broadly accepted concepts of social justice. The problem of devising a sustainable management strategy is exacerbated in fisheries with diverse consumptive and non-consumptive users. An empirically based simulation-optimization model is used to characterize the biological and economic effects of alternative management regimes in a fishery with commercial and sport fishers. The results are generalized to the case of additional use and nonuse values