Capacity And Capacity Utilization In Fishing Industries

The definition and measurement of capacity in fishing and other natural resource industries possess unique problems because of the stock-flow production technology, in which inputs are applied to the natural resource stock to produce a flow of output. In addition, there are often multiple resource stocks, corresponding to different species, with a mobile stock of capital that can exploit one or more of these stocks. In turn, this leads to three unique issues: (1) multiple stocks of capital and the resource; (2) that of aggregation or how to define the industry and resource stocks to consider; and (3), that of latent capacity or how to include stocks of capital that are currently inactive or exploit the resource stock only at low levels of variable input utilization. This paper presents appropriate definitions of capacity and methods for measuring capacity in fishing industries taking into consideration these issues.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsbooks/1060/thumbnail.jp

SHORT-RUN WELFARE LOSSES FROM ESSENTIAL FISH HABITAT DESIGNATIONS FOR THE SURFCLAM AND OCEAN QUAHOG FISHERIES

In this paper, we present a spatial model of fishing that can be used to assess some of the economic welfare losses to producers from setting aside essential fish habitat (EFH) areas. The paper demonstrates how spatially explicit behavioral models of fishing are estimated, how these models can be used to measure welfare losses to fishermen, and how these models can then, in turn, be used to simulate fishing behavior. In developing the spatial model of fishing behavior, the work incorporates ideas of congestion and information effects, and we show a modification of standard welfare measures that accounts for these spillover effects. Using this methodology, these effects are traced through to the policy simulations, where we demonstrate how these welfare and predicted shares need to be modified to account for spillover effects from fleet activity.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Temporal Variations In Spawning Behavior Of Sea Scallops, Placopecten magellanicus (Gmelin, 1791), In The Mid-Atlantic Resource Area

Interannual variation in spawning of Placopecten magellanicus (Gmelin) may be important to management agencies concerned with maximizing yield-per-recruit via restrictions on meat counts or temporal restrictions on catch and effort. In this study, temporal patterns in the spawning behavior of sea scallops in the Mid-Atlantic resource area for the period April 1987-April 1991 are analyzed using conventional time-series methods. Biannual spawning was found to be characteristic of sea scallops in the Mid-Atlantic resource area but was also found to be erratic in the timing, duration, and magnitude. The spring spawning event was the more predictable and dominant spawning event. The fall spawn was temporally-erratic; it did not occur in 1989. Longer time-series and analyses of environmental factors are recommended to more precisely determine the gametogenic and spawning cycle of sea scallops in the Mid-Atlantic resource area