MARKET POWER, MANAGEMENT REGIMES, AND STRATEGIC CONSERVATION OF FISHERIES

This paper explores the interaction that may exist between national fisheries management regimes through international markets for fisheries products. A two-stage, two-period model is developed in which the fishing industries of a "domestic" country and a "foreign" country harvest identical fisheries products, from separate fish stocks, for the same international market. The domestic country uses a harvest policy to regulate its fishing industry in each period, while the foreign fishing industry is unregulated. Two types of fisheries are considered: schooling fisheries and search fisheries. Given these two types of fisheries, it is shown that the domestic country may choose a conservative harvest policy in the first period in order to induce further degradation, or even destruction, of the foreign fishery in the second period. The results suggest that fisheries trade in the presence of international market power and divergent national fisheries management regimes could have unexpected consequences for world fisheries.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,