Production Costs in Atlantic Fresh Fish Processing

Production costs for fresh Atlantic groundfish and scallop processing are examined using direct observation, linear regression analysis, and cost accounting. Assuming that management chooses a production technique where marginal costs are constant over a wide range of production due to management's expectation of predictable and unpredictable variation in product demand and exvessel supply, estimates of marginal cost for nonfish inputs from linear regression results and from cost accounting are compared. Also, regression results for physical yield from fish inputs are compared to estimates from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The similarity in results between these independent forms of estimation supports the maintained hypothesis of constant marginal cost over a wide range of production.Demand and Price Analysis, Environmental Economics and Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Production Economics, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

The New Division of Labor in Massachusetts

In The New Division of Labor, Levy and Murnane describe a world of work re-shaped by computers where workers whose jobs can be reduced to steps based on rules are replaced, and where jobs that require judgment or negotiation are enhanced. The authors test the hypothesis of Levy and Murnane’s work with a close look at Fall River and New Bedford. These cities, with high unemployment and low rates of educational attainment, show patterns of job replacement by computers as compared with Massachusetts as a whole — a wealthy state with high rates of education, which shows a pattern of jobs enhanced by computers. Finally, the authors focus in on the recent bank mergers in southeastern Massachusetts for indications of what our future holds

The Effect of Reduced Supply on Fish Processing in New England

Due to declines in stocks, restrictive management plans, and imports of whole groundfish from Canada, the supply of whole fresh Atlantic groundfish to New England processing plants (landings plus whole fresh imports) declined by 75% since its peak in 1983. These reductions in supply of Atlantic groundfish put severe pressure on New England fresh fish processors. Survival techniques, including scouring local ports, Canada, and the West Coast for whole groundfish, importing fresh fillets, exploiting niches, substituting for groundfish, focusing more on wholesaling, and closely watching the bottom line, favored Boston processors, because they have advantages in transport costs, easier access to the regional food processing market, and share in the cost economies from brokerage, packing, transport, and wholesaling activities that support processing. As the smaller firms have turned to wholesaling or simply vanished, there are fewer, and typically larger firms. Large firms are better able to draw on widely scattered geographic sources, and adapt to display auctions, now an indispensable source of domestic whole fish. The forces that are reshaping the structure of the processing industry are, therefore, real economies of scale. While the high levels of the concentration might seem to convey substantial market power to large processors, the pressure on margins that has accompanied the falling supply has effectively prevented concentration from leading to non-competitive prices and profits. Many of the changes in structure of groundfish processing due to supply shortages will probably not be affected by increases in landings, when and if stocks recover. Production of frozen fish products declined more that fresh fish production due to falling demand for frozen products

The Effect of Days at Sea Limits on Technical Efficiency

Outputs and inputs during 1994-2006 in the USA Northeast Multispecies (groundfish) fishery—including days fished for a group of 47 otter trawl vessels fishing out of New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA—were analyzed to test the hypothesis that restricting the annual days-at-sea (DAS) of individual fishing vessels increased Technical Efficiency (TE). The results indicate that TE for the group of New Bedford trawlers increased when DAS management was introduced in 1994 and as maximum individual vessel DAS allocations were reduced over time. DAS trips were more efficient than trips for other species that did not require DAS. After DAS leasing was implemented beginning in 2004, DAS were purchased by more efficient vessels in both 2004 and 2006

Bycatch Avoidance Programs in Two New England (USA) Fisheries

We conducted similar bycatch avoidance programs in two New England fisheries: yellowtail flounder bycatch in the sea scallop closed area fisheries and river herring bycatch in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fishery. These species have different behavioral properties: sea scallops are sessile; yellowtail flounder are demersal with limited but unknown range. Herring and mackerel are pelagic species with wide spatial and temporal ranges; river herring are anadromous. Management actions also differed between the two fisheries. The sea scallop closed area fisheries were limited in time and space with hard quotas for each species. The herring and mackerel fishery was limited in large scale areas by hard quotas, without quotas for river herring. Fishermen were motivated to avoid river herring by strong conservation pressure, river herring are listed as a species of concern and under review for endangered species by the U.S. agencies, which designation would effectively close the Atlantic herring fishery. In the scallop fisheries, we mapped and updated densities for target and bycatch stocks through real-time monitoring and communicated hotspots with captains at sea. In the herring and mackerel fishery we identified densities through port sampling and communicated hotspots to captains at sea. We also reported environmental factors of river herring density such as depth to captains. Percent participation exceeded 75% in each fisheries with evidence of avoidance behavior in both fisheries. Yellowtail bycatch was sharply reduced in the scallop closed area fisheries with some reduction of river herring bycatch in the herring and mackerel fisheries

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale

Recent Adjustments in Northeast US Fresh Groundfish and Scallop Processing and Marketing

The North Atlantic U.S. groundfish and scallop processing industries are a tale of two fisheries. The groundfish processing industry has suffered a steep, almost continual decline in landings starting in 1984 that resulted in 2014 landings that were only 16% of 1983 landings. US scallop landings increased from 5 million mt in 1998 to 30 mill mt in 2004, remaining around that peak until 2012. Both processing industries had to adjust: groundfish processors had to find new sources of fresh groundfish and other products to fill customers’ orders and scallop processors had to find new customers to buy its surplus product. This study used interviews with processors and data on landings, imports and exports to examine the marketing strategies of these processing industries to adjust to trends in landings and to evaluate their success within the confines the US Magnuson-Stevens Act. After imported whole groundfish from Canada were eliminated as substitutes for local landings, groundfish processors increased diversification of products as substitute for fresh groundfish to fill their customers’ orders, scouring the world for products such as Pacific cod, other groundfish, and some pelagic species. They also skipped the wholesale market to sell direct to retailers and restaurants. Not all succeeded, processing plants declined by almost half since 1990. Scallop processors successfully developed new markets for scallops, through exports and IQF packing for restaurants. The doubling of ex-vessel scallop prices, adjusted for inflation, since 2000 shows their success, which also supports processors’ claims that steady increasing supply improves product sales.Keywords: Fisheries’ Shoreside Support - the Forgotten Sector, Fisheries Economics, Markets and TradeKeywords: Fisheries’ Shoreside Support - the Forgotten Sector, Fisheries Economics, Markets and Trad

Combining Fishermen’s Knowledge with Economic Models to Locate and Evaluate Gray Meat Outbreaks in Atlantic Sea Scallops

Atlantic sea scallop fisheries in Iceland and the United States have been subject to outbreaks of ‘gray meat’, a disease caused by infestation by a new species of apicomplexan parasite that causes progressive myodegeneration of scallop meats that kills scallops and reduces recruitment. Due to reduced exvessel value, fishermen discard gray meats, and if possible, move to different fishing areas. Scallop biomass in Iceland dropped from 80% in 1999 to 10% in 2005 due to discards, natural mortality and recruitment failure attributed to gray meat infestation. Initial interviews with U.S. fishermen on the locations of gray meat outbreaks and daily monitoring of the scallop auction reveal that the condition persists in Georges Bank and the range of the infection appears to be large and increasing. This paper reports the spatial and temporal location of gray meats, and oceanographic conditions associated with gray meat infestations in the U.S. We also report the effects of gray meats on scallop exvessel price at the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction. We also examine the loss of biomass of scallops in the 2012 access fishery in Closed Area 1 due to gray meat infestation and discards of gray meat scallops, which led to the early closing of the access fishery after only about one half of allowed scallop trips had been taken. During this access fishery, the scallop biomass declined from 28 million pounds according to the SMAST video survey in 2011 to less than 10 million pounds in 2013.Keywords: Fisheries Economics, Temporal and Spatial Use, Bioeconomic Modelin