A MODEL OF BYCATCH INVOLVING A PASSIVE USE STOCK

We develop a simple extension of the theory of multispecies fisheries management to analyze a problem where one fish or animal stock has no commercial market but instead is valued passively. We interpret a typical by bycatch problem as a standard multispecies fisheries management problem, and we develop a multispecies model incorporating both monetary damages associated with bycatch and variable biological relationships. We examine the behavior of the model with a numerical example focusing on the case of the bycatch of spotted and other dolphins in the eastern tropical Pacific (ETP) yellowfin tuna fishery.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

An Analysis of the Relationship between Fish Harvesting and Processing Sectors in New England

Using annual data from 1981 to 2002, the relationship between harvesting and processing of fish and the effects of imports on processing in New England were analyzed. Additionally, cause and effect relationships between harvesting and processing and between processing and imports were examined using Granger causality tests. Output from the fish processing sector is jointly driven by local fish landings and fish imports and unidirectional causalities exist from local landings to processing and from processing to imports. Generally, processors optimize business operations over multiple species and multiple supply sources. Rebuilding the groundfish stock would not lead to a dramatic and immediate increase in the processing industry. Instead, the actual growth in the processing sector would be relatively smaller than that in the harvesting sector.Fish processing, fish harvesting, fish imports, causality., Q2, Q22, L66, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

THE OPTIMAL ALLOCATION OF OCEAN SPACE: AQUACULTURE AND WILD-HARVEST FISHERIES

A significant problem hindering the emergence or the continued growth of aquaculture in many marine areas is the conflict that arises among it and other ocean uses. We develop a framework to clarify the choice of the optimal scale of aquaculture when that use impacts a commercial fishery. We identify a range of potential impacts, both positive and negative, and analyze how one or more might affect the carrying capacity of a fish stock. We conduct a numerical simulation to illustrate a case where aquaculture and fishery uses interact in the ocean and compete in the product market, and we find that an ocean area could be devoted exclusively to aquaculture. This result depends strongly upon assumptions about the nature of the interaction, the geographic distribution of fish, and the aquaculture production technology. We also investigate the behavior of the model when both uses are able to coexist.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Scaling the benefits of and risks to the ecosystem services of the midwater

Presented at the ICES Annual Science Conference 2018, September 24 - 27, 2018, Hamburg, GermanyThe midwater is renowned for its unusual life forms, including 13 species of bristlemouths, which are thought to be the most numerous vertebrates on earth. Irigoien et al. (2014) have raised the median estimate of midwater fish biomass by an order of magnitude to ~11x109T. Some observers have suggested that these fish constitute an enormous potential source of pro-tein that literally could “feed the world.” Diel vertical migrations of zooplankton lead to the consumption of epipelagic phytoplankton, and the zooplankton, in turn, are consumed by the midwater’s fish. This ecological cycle comprises a central element of a biological “carbon pump” that leads eventually to the very long-term sequestration of carbon on the deep seabed. While the net amounts of carbon sequestered in this way are highly uncertain, estimates range between 4-12x109T annually. In April 2018, a formal international conference will initiate work on a new Framework Con-vention under the law of the sea, focusing on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (the so-called BBNJ Convention). De-spite a growing recognition by marine scientists of the importance of the midwater, its ecosys-tem services have been essentially ignored during these discussions. Here, we report on ap-proaches to estimating the scales of the economic values of the midwater’s ecosystem services and the nature of anthropogenic risks to those services. An ultimate objective of this research is to strengthen the links between marine science and the emerging international discussions over the conservation of the biodiversity of the high seas. This poster was presented at the ICES Annual Science Conference 2018, "Theme Session A: Mesopelagic ecosystems: fish and invertebrate population biomass and biodiversity, and role in carbon flux," and it is identified in this Theme Session report: https://www.ices.dk/news-and-events/asc/asc2018/Documents/Session%20Reports/Theme%20session_A_report_onlineready.pd

Applying portfolio management to implement Ecosystem-Based Fishery Management (EBFM)

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Taylor & Francis for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in North American Journal of Fisheries Management 36 (2016): 652-669, doi:10.1080/02755947.2016.1146180.Portfolio management has been suggested as a tool to help implement ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM). The portfolio approach involves the application of financial portfolio theory to multispecies fishery management to account for species interdependencies, uncertainty, and sustainability constraints. By considering covariance among species, this approach allows economic risks and returns to be calculated across varying combinations of stock sizes. Tradeoffs between expected aggregate returns and portfolio risk can thus be assessed. We develop a procedure for constructing portfolio models to help implement EBFM in the northeastern United States, using harvest data from the National Marine Fisheries Service. Extending the work of Sanchirico et al. (2008), we propose a measure of excessive risk taking, which may be used by managers to monitor signals of non-optimal harvests. In addition, we conduct portfolio assessments of historical commercial fishing performance at different accounting stances: the large marine ecosystem, the New England region, and the community (fishing ports). We show that portfolio analysis could inform management at each level. Results of the study suggest that excessive risk taking is associated with overfishing, and risk management is therefore important for ensuring sustainability.This article was prepared under award numbers NA09OAR4320129 (Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region) from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce and with additional support from the J. Seward Johnson Fund in Support of the WHOI Marine Policy Center.2017-06-0

Valuing environmental education as a cultural ecosystem service at Hudson River Park

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2018. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ecosystem Services 31C (2018): 387-394, doi:10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.03.005.The Hudson River and its estuary is once again an ecologically, economically, and culturally functional component of New York City’s natural environment. The estuary's cultural significance may derive largely from environmental education, including marine science programs for the public. These programs are understood as “cultural” ecosystem services but are rarely evaluated in economic terms. We estimated the economic value of the Hudson River Park’s environmental education programs. We compiled data on visits by schools and summer camps from 32 New York City school districts to the Park during the years 2014 and 2015. A “travel cost” approach was adapted from the field of environmental economics to estimate the value of education in this context. A small—but conservative—estimate of the Park’s annual education program benefits ranged between $7,500-$25,500, implying an average capitalized value on the order of $0.6 million. Importantly, organizations in districts with high proportions of minority students or English language learners were found to be more likely to participate in the Park’s programs. The results provide an optimistic view of the benefits of environmental education focused on urban estuaries, through which a growing understanding of ecological systems could lead to future environmental improvements.We thank the Hudson River Foundation and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Summer Student Fellow program for financial support

The value of scientific research on the ocean's biological carbon pump

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Jin, D., Hoagland, P., & Buesseler, K. O. The value of scientific research on the ocean's biological carbon pump. Science of the Total Environment, 749, (2020): 141357, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.141357.The ocean's biological carbon pump (BCP) sequesters carbon from the surface to the deep ocean and seabed, constituting one of Earth's most valuable ecosystem services. Significant uncertainty exists surrounding the amounts and rates of organic carbon sequestered in the oceans, however. With improved understanding of BCP sequestration, especially its scale, world policymakers would be positioned to make more informed decisions regarding the mitigation of carbon emissions. Here, an analytical model of the economic effects of global carbon emissions—including scientific uncertainty about BCP sequestration—was developed to estimate the value of marine scientific research concerning sequestration. The discounted net economic benefit of a putative 20-year scientific research program to narrow the range of uncertainty around the amount of carbon sequestered in the ocean is on the order of $0.5 trillion (USD), depending upon the accuracy of predictions, the convexities of climate damage and economic output functions, and the initial range of uncertainty.This research is supported by WHOI's Ocean Twilight Zone program which is part of the Audacious Project, a collaborative endeavor, housed at TED. DJ was also funded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Institutes (CINAR) award NA14OAR4320158. KB was also funded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the EXport Processes in the Ocean from RemoTe Sensing (EXPORTS) program award 80NSSC17K0555. We thank Ankur Shah for research assistance and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive suggestions

Risk averse choices of managed beach widths under environmental uncertainty

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Jin, D., Hoagland, P., & Ashton, A. D. Risk averse choices of managed beach widths under environmental uncertainty. Natural Resource Modeling, (2021): e12324, https://doi.org/10.1111/nrm.12324.Applying a theoretical geo-economic approach, we examined key factors affecting decisions about the choice of beach width when eroded coastal beaches are being nourished (i.e., when fill is placed to widen a beach). Within this geo-economic framework, optimal beach width is positively related to its values for hazard protection and recreation and negatively related to nourishment costs and the discount rate. Using a dynamic modeling framework, we investigated the time paths of beach width and nourishment that maximized net present value under an accelerating sea level. We then analyzed how environmental uncertainty about expected future beach width, arising from natural shoreline dynamics, intermittent large storms, or sea-level rise, leads to economic choices favoring narrower beaches. Risk aversion can affect a coastal property owner's choice of beach width in contradictory ways: the expected benefits of hazard protection must be balanced against the expected costs of repeated nourishment actions.Support for this study was provided by NSF Grant No. ARG 1518503, WHOI Sea Grant (NOAA Award Number: NA18OAR4170104), and the J. Seward Johnson Fund in Support of the Marine Policy Center

Economic impact of the 2005 red tide event on commercial shellfish fisheries in New England

Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2008. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Ocean & Coastal Management 51 (2008): 420-429, doi:10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2008.01.004.Over the last several decades, harmful algal bloom (HAB) events have been observed in more locations than ever before throughout the United States. The 2005 bloom of Alexandrium fundyense was the most widespread and intense in New England waters since a similar event more than three decades ago. In this study, using historical data from the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, and other sources, we develop estimates of the direct economic impacts of the 2005 event on commercial shellfish fisheries in Maine and Massachusetts. Results of our regression analyses suggest that the 2005 event had broad spatial and temporal effects on the shellfish market. In response to a supply shortage resulting from local closures, there was an increase in shellfish imports to New England during the red tide. Further, shellfish closures in Maine were the most likely cause of observable price changes on the Fulton Fish Market in New York.This research was supported by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) through the WHOI/NOAA Cooperative Institute on Climate and Ocean Research (CICOR) under award number NA17RJ1223

Business planning handbook for the ocean aquaculture of blue mussels

For prospective growers of blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) in New England marine waters, this handbook is designed to be useful for assessing the structure of the market (including industrial organization and regulation), for making informed choices about organizational form, and for planning aquaculture business development. Importantly, we discuss methods for evaluating environmental and market risks. Where possible, we identify web-based and other sources of information to aid in business planning and in the design and operation of an ocean aquaculture business specializing in the production of blue mussels.Sponsored by the CINEMar Program at the University of New Hampshire, Agreement No. 03- 671 to NOAA Grant Nos. NA06RP0454 and NA16RP1718