Ocean Economy Valuation Studies in the Asia-Pacific Region: Lessons for the Future International Use of National Accounts in the Blue Economy

There have been several projects that have addressed the challenges of measuring the ocean economy in the Asia-Pacific region. The paper examines some lessons from these projects and the implications for the future use of national accounts. Following the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Bali declaration, the APEC Marine Resource Conservation Working group’s “Measuring the Marine economy” project promoted consistent measurement of the marine economy across the 21 APEC economies against a list of agreed marine industry categories which was developed by an APEC workshop on Easter Island in 2004. In 2008-09 a Partnership for the Environmental Management of the Seas of the East Asia (PEMSEA) worked with national marine economists in eight countries and revealed that some East Asian ocean economies had substantially higher marine economy as proportion of GDP than in more developed economies. In the past five years China has progressed several Blue economy forums. There have been several South East Asian Seas initiatives, such as the Changwon declaration, leading to a new PEMSEA project to measure the Blue economy for East Asian economies in 2015-2018. The drivers to measure the Ocean economy are an outcome of regional initiatives and Ministerial declarations. Few government national account agencies see a need to supply ocean economy data and studies have been undertaken by academics and consultants with access to national account information. Ocean policy development in Australia, Canada and the US has produced some studies. Marine industries are highly regulated and the government vision for oceans lies across many different agencies. In the Asia Pacific use of national accounts to provide industry estimates acknowledge the three pillars of sustainability, with social and environmental impact being important in these developing countries. There are different perspectives on the relevance of national accounts to green, blue economy valuation seeming to be less valued than less tangible environmental valuation approaches. The paper concludes that National accounts are necessary to blue economy evaluation, if not sufficient in all aspects and provide a solid basis for improvements in measurement of the Blue economy

SUBSTITUTABILITY AMONG SPECIES IN THE JAPANESE TUNA MARKET: A COINTEGRATION ANALYSIS

This paper examines two sets of hypotheses concerning the existence and the cause of the long-run, inter-species price relationships in the Japanese tuna market. A shock variable is introduced into the system to determine the degree of influence on the price relationships as well as the magnitude of the power in explaining the variation in prices of tuna species. Although in most cases the coefficient estimates of the shock variable are statistically significant, overall, the variable does not have significant explanatory power in both bivariate and multivariate regressions. We also find that the degree of substitutability between bigeye and albacore is substantially lower than the degree of substitutability between bigeye and yellowfin and, yellowfin and albacore.Industrial Organization, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Can a global fund help solve the global marine plastic debris problem?

The problem of marine plastic debris impacts all of the world’s oceans and requires all nations to respond. However, developing States require funds to improve waste management infrastructure and services in order to reduce marine debris at source. Plastics manufacturers and retailers globally must be incentivised to design products for the environment as well as for the collection and end-of-life treatment facilities available within the intended markets. Given the oceans are a global common, we investigate the option of developing a global fund mechanism to progress the necessary actions to reduce plastic waste entering the world’s oceans. This requires consideration of what form a conceptual global fund could take, how contributions will be made to the fund and what the fund would pay for. In the short-term, remediation may be prioritised, but long-term preventive measures must also be considered. Both require funding. A global fund could assist in closing the disparity in available national funds for such activities. A conceptual model is proposed that would assess the discharge of solid waste into the global stock of marine plastic debris by each State to determine their contribution to the fund. Some nations will initially be large contributors to the fund, creating incentive to reduce waste entering the oceans in order to reduce these financial contributions. Such a model may be regarded as inherently unfair, presenting issues of capacity and equity. Many developing States would therefore be exempted from financial contributions and be assisted by the fund to address the mismanagement of plastic waste. Alternate methods of determining national contributions to the fund are provided from analogous mechanisms. It is suggested the model may still have merit for determining contributors to the global stock, stimulating policy development and measuring success of the proposed fund outputs

Towards an Eco-Theology of Fisheries Management?

This paper discusses the potential contribution of an eco-theology to the management of marine resources. The claim of the Christian gospel is that God has a plan for everything in the universe and we are to live to bring it about. The Hebrew/Christian world view is significantly different from naturalism and humanism, the prevailing Greek world views in natural resource management. Three biblical paradigms are examined with insights into key elements in the management of fisheries: dominion; regulation and valuation and caring. In dominion we see the strength of mankind's rule over other species, including fish, misused. Fisheries management generally fails to reign in this driving force, rewarding greed while calling for restraint. Regulation and its impact on mindsets and behaviour, is a theme evident in the Old and New Testaments - entering the promised land, keeping the law and caring for others, both humans and fish. The biblical view also emphasises life, death and resurrection as the process seen in nature. New fishery management paradigms may only develop after old ways and attitudes have died. Significant attitudinal change is essential to improve fisheries management and to achieve new management arrangements. Improved fishery stewardship may require "a new fisher", relationally mature and societally accountable, to achieve the goals of sustainable fishery management through a variety of policy paradigms. The Christian world view promotes such attitudinal change to improve stewardship through reconciling issues in our relationship with God, neighbours and nature. It is worthy of further investigation

Do Fishery Infrastructure Subsidies Need to be Disciplined to Protect Sustainability?

At the 2001 WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, World Trade Ministers called for improved disciplines on fisheries subsidies, given the perceived impact of these subsidies in contributing to overfishing, overcapacity and other trade distortions. Subsequent deliberations have sought to determine which fisheries subsidies should be disciplined under the WTO framework. A review of fishery subsidisation literature revealed that the extent and impacts of subsidies of fishery infrastructure has been insufficiently investigated by the fishery economic community. In 2005 a New Zealand submission to the WTO proposed a categorisation of subsidies for fisheries infrastructure to promote discussion of these issues in the WTO arena. This paper presents a category framework for investigating fisheries infrastructure subsidies and briefly presents a range of views on how nations look at fishery infrastructure subsidies and differences over the belief that infrastructure subsidies can detrimentally impact upon fish stocks. The discussion presents several illustrations of how infrastructural subsidies have not been sufficiently factored into empirical fishery economic studies of the catching and processing sectors. Infrastructural subsidies can have negative implications for the sustainable management of the world's fish stocks

Chasing the thrill or just passing the time? Trialing a new mixed methods approach to understanding heterogeneity amongst recreational fishers based on motivations

Human dimensions researchers and fisheries managers have long recognized the value of exploring the heterogeneity that exists amongst recreational fishers. Understanding the differences between fishers has the potential to assist managers in developing targeted communication strategies, direct resources to active management more efficiently and improve understanding of how fishers will respond to changes in regulations or new management interventions. Human dimensions research has traditionally explored fisher heterogeneity through research into the different reasons why people choose to fish, as well as attempts to categorize or segment fishers using variable based approaches. These studies have, to date, relied primarily on large scale, quantitative survey techniques with a particular focus on fisher avidity and commitment. They are therefore limited in their ability to explain how different fishing motivations might interact within an individual, why particular motivations are prioritized, and how this might influence fisher behavior and attitudes. This study trialed a mixed methods approach to understanding fisher heterogeneity based primarily on motivations using a case study in NSW, Australia. This trial involved utilizing a person-centered approach known as Latent Class Analysis (LCA), followed by qualitative, in depth focus group discussions. This revealed five distinct fisher classes; Social fishers, Trophy Fishers, Outdoor Enthusiasts, Generalists and Hunter-Gatherers, each with distinct and significantly different combinations of catch and non-catch-related motivations. The qualitative analysis sought to explore the intersection of motivations and attitudes towards management within and across the different fisher classes. The results highlighted the importance of more detailed examination of the intersection between motivations and attitudes in future LCA, with a particular focus on the potential influence of mastery (or challenge/experience) motivations on fisher attitudes to wards marine and fisheries management approaches

Maritime security and the Blue Economy: intersections and interdependencies in the Indian Ocean

Maritime security is essential to supporting the Blue Economy. Many maritime security forums have been key supporters of the Blue Economy concept, particularly in the Indian Ocean region (IOR). This paper will explore the co-evolution and co-dependence of Blue Economy and maritime security agendas, with a particular focus on the IOR. It identifies two primary interactions between Blue Economy and maritime security interests. Firstly, maritime security is an enabler of the Blue Economy, for example, through safeguarding navigation routes, providing important oceanographic data to marine industries and protecting rights over valuable marine resources and activities within claimed zones of maritime jurisdiction. Secondly, an often overlooked role that maritime security plays in the Blue Economy is by being itself a source of economic development and growth. An expanded Blue Economy will create greater demand for maritime security capabilities, and this, in turn, will trigger increased investment and growth in these capabilities. The enhanced and increasingly diverse role that maritime security will continue to play in the Blue Economy can be seen across all sectors in the IOR

Whose job is it to clear up all the rubbish floating in the oceans?

I was in the middle of giving a talk on the marine debris problem at a notable Californian marine research institute, when I drank the last of my water bottle, threw it onto the hall floor from the podium, and kept talking. There it sat, to the surprise of several members of the audience. One well-meaning citizen then picked it up and returned it to the lectern. “Why did you do that?” I asked. “It just seemed wrong to leave it there,” he replied. Individuals know that something is wrong when the oceans are filled with debris. It is time for governments to act on that knowledge. But sea debris comes from both land and sea sources and it’s hard to point to its exact origin and hence to get a polluter to take responsibility for cleaning it u

The challenge of managing Earth\u27s new economic frontier: our oceans

Amid growing demand for seafood, gas and other resources drawn from the world’s oceans, and growing stresses from climate change, we examine some of the challenges and solutions for developing “the blue economy” in smarter, more sustainable ways