The Resource Rent in Sweden's Fishery

The report is an analysis of the resource rent in the Swedish fishery, produced as a contribution to the new strategic plan for the Swedish fishery in the years 2007-2013 according to the draft EU regulation for the EFF (European Fishery Fund). A model has been produced based on linear programming. The study originates from the situation in 2004 and with this basis different scenarios are calculated for the coming years. Special emphasis has been put on the optimal resource rent and the maximum number of employed persons within the sector. The actual current situation points to great deficits, and also to a fishery overcapacity. This is due to too many vessels sharing a resource too small. The fixed costs of the overdimensioned fishing fleet turn potential profits into great losses. The effects of restructuring the fishing fleet could be large. An optimal economic scenario suggests that more that 50% of the fleet should be restructured, and that more than 40% of these should even be scrapped, i.e. removed from the fleet altogether. The optimal scenario further suggests that only one-fifth of the total quotas should be landed; catching the remaining four-fifths is not profitable. The goal of utilizing the fish resource is not only to maximize profits, but also for example to spread the use regionally or to maximize employment. The resource rent is expected to be zero at a maximized level of employment. The results show that a restructuring can increase employment as well, even with half of the current utilization of the resource, i.e. with half of the current total catch. The net- and hook segment and the small pelagic vessels are winners from an employment perspective. This is not only due to low incomes per fisherman (which is absolutely not true for the small pelagic vessels), but also to that the profits in these segments can be used to increase total capacity, i.e. the number of vessels. The future is uncertain. Technological development and increasing prices and costs are some of the potential changes that can be expected to take place, but the calibers of these changes are unpredictable. The Baltic Sea seal population is another threat worth considering. A likely future scenario does nevertheless look bright from an economic perspective. The results indicate that restructuring can make the fishing fleet generate a relatively large profit without overexploiting the resource

Mapping Fishing Effort through AIS Data

Several research initiatives have been undertaken to map fishing effort at high spatial resolution using the Vessel Monitoring System (VMS). An alternative to the VMS is represented by the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which in the EU became compulsory in May 2014 for all fishing vessels of length above 15 meters. The aim of this paper is to assess the uptake of the AIS in the EU fishing fleet and the feasibility of producing a map of fishing effort with high spatial and temporal resolution at European scale. After analysing a large AIS dataset for the period January-August 2014 and covering most of the EU waters, we show that AIS was adopted by around 75% of EU fishing vessels above 15 meters of length. Using the Swedish fleet as a case study, we developed a method to identify fishing activity based on the analysis of individual vessels’ speed profiles and produce a high resolution map of fishing effort based on AIS data. The method was validated using detailed logbook data and proved to be sufficiently accurate and computationally efficient to identify fishing grounds and effort in the case of trawlers, which represent the largest portion of the EU fishing fleet above 15 meters of length. Issues still to be addressed before extending the exercise to the entire EU fleet are the assessment of coverage levels of the AIS data for all EU waters and the identification of fishing activity in the case of vessels other than trawlers.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Sustainability now or later? Estimating the benefits of pathways to maximum sustainable yield for EU Northeast Atlantic fisheries

8 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables, supporting information http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.06.015Most countries have the goal to manage their fisheries to achieve a combination of biological, economic, social, and political objectives [1] and [2]. This is also the case for the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). According to Article 2 of the CFP [3]: “The CFP shall ensure that fishing and aquaculture activities are environmentally sustainable in the long-term and are managed in a way that is consistent with the objectives of achieving economic, social and employment benefits, and of contributing to the availability of food supplies”. [...]Peer Reviewe

Report on the Workshop on Transversal Variables. (Linking economic and biological effort data (call) design). 19th -23rd January 2015

The Workshop on the Transversal Variables took place in Zagreb from the 19th to 23rd of January, 2015 mainly to tackle the issues related to the increasing need of having fisheries fleet economic data and fisheries biologic data on a level of disaggregation that would allow a proper interoperability between datasets to underpin bioeconomic modelling. For that, several analyses were carried out and conclusions taken. These analyses were : 1. comparison of economic and biological effort data calls both with respect to their level of resolution and the landings and effort values obtained from equivalent aggregations was performed. This was compared to what would be needed in order to undertake bioeconomic modelling for a chosen management plan. 2. The description of how MS are calculating effort variables and a proposal on the way forward to harmonize approaches, 3. Conclusions on how to harmonize levels of resolution, the variable definitions and the codification in use amongst data calls, in order to make them comparable and based on coherent standard codifications.JRC.G.3-Maritime affair

Economic valuation of sport-fishing in Sweden

Little is currently known about the net benefits and, therefore, the importance of recreational fishing in Sweden from an economic point of view. This thesis is an attempt to fill this gap by providing a number of empirical valuation studies on recreational fishing in Sweden. Furthermore, the thesis also proposes a number of methodological improvements of the currently available methods for measuring environmental benefits. The empirical results suggest that the economic value of sport-fishing in Sweden is higher than previously thought. In studies carried out at the Byske river, the Kaitum river and in the Bohus region (which includes river, lake and sea fishing), I find that the net value per day is roughly about SEK 100 (with variations depending on quality characteristics, travel costs and so on). In contrast, earlier studies find values that are much lower. Furthermore, I also find that the marginal value (per kg or number) varies significantly according to the type of fishing (ordinary, put and take, coastal, guide-boat, river), ranging from a few SEK (coastal fishing in Bohus region) to several hundred SEK for obtaining a “trophy fish” in the Kaitum river. A simple way of obtaining the marginal value of catch for each respondent within a contingent valuation experiment is proposed. Secondly, a multi-attribute extension of the contingent valuation method is devised, allowing a straightforward way to estimate the value of changing site characteristics. Thirdly, a new approach to designing a choice experiment is introduced, showing how a theoretically consistent design procedure by approximation can be implemented in a simple manner. Fourthly, a re-interpretation of a model often used in valuing environmental goods (the Random Utility Maximizing (RUM) model) is offered. While we are able to estimate the value of fish management in several dimensions (catch and release, bag limit and so on), the next step is to fully integrate this effort with available insights from ecological modelling of fish resources

Obstacles to Developing Recreational Fishing Enterprises in Sweden

The Swedish government has a stated objective of developing the recreational fishing industry, not least with respect to employment opportunities in rural areas. This paper analyzes the possibilities for governmental policies to enhance the development. After asking companies what obstacles they view as problematic for running their business, four challenges are analyzed; lack of fish, lack of large fish, exclusive access to fishing waters, and marketing. The analysis identifies the company characteristics that are associated with viewing the obstacles as large problems. The companies that tend to view the lack of fish and large fish as more problematic than others have some of these characteristics: guides, salmon fishing in fresh water, marine fishery and being located close to a large city. Exclusive access is a larger obstacle for guides, large companies and companies in northern Sweden. Marketing is more problematic for food and accommodation companies and newly started companies