Employment Prospects in a Commercially Viable Newfoundland Fishery: An Application of 'An Econometric Model of the Newfoundland Groundfishery'

An econometric model is utilized to simulate the effects of a policy change in which government financial assistance to a major Canadian marine fishery is withdrawn and the industry is placed on a commercially viable basis. Under near-ideal conditions of marketing and harvesting, harvesting employment would fall drastically, from approximately thirty thousand fishermen under the current regime to approximately six thousand. There would be a concomitant fall in seasonal fish plant employment, and a severe fall in those federal transfer payments (e.g., unemployment insurance) which are currently generated by extensive seasonal employment in both harvesting and processing sectors of the fishery. The policy analysis consists of simulations with a prototype econometric model which integrates the demand, processing, and harvesting sectors of the fishery. The essential components of the 1,000-equation model are described.Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

THE CONCEPT OF SUBSIDIES

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Is There Hope for Fisheries Management?

Fisheries is not the only discipline where models have been used in attempts to fine tune an aspect of the economy. Such fine tuning can prove ineffective because of the uncertainties in the scientific underpinnings of the models and because of the omission of critical elements. In fisheries, the biological goal is to set allowable catches so that the harvest is not so large that it endangers the future health of the fish stock while it is not so low as to waste food, while the economic goal is to maximize the net economic rent generated by the fishery. It has long been recognized that the science underlying the setting of the total allowable catch is often too uncertain to justify such fine tuning, and that attempts to achieve that delicate balance has helped lead to crises in fisheries. One solution is to abandon such marginalism in favor of seriously reducing current catches

The Cost of Marine Fishery Management in Eastern Canada: Newfoundland 1989/90 to 1997/98

Defining the fisheries management role of government as the process beginning with stock assessment, running through fisheries management proper, and concluding with surveillance and enforcement, this paper describes the marine fisheries management process in Newfoundland and itemizes the associated expenditures.Keywords: fishery management, Newfoundland, Canad

Scanning electron microscopy and machine learning reveal heterogeneity in capsular morphotypes of the human pathogen Cryptococcus spp.

Phenotypic heterogeneity is an important trait for the development and survival of many microorganisms including the yeast Cryptococcus spp., a deadly pathogen spread worldwide. Here, we have applied scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to defne four Cryptococcus spp. capsule morphotypes, namely Regular, Spiky, Bald, and Phantom. These morphotypes were persistently observed in varying proportions among yeast isolates. To assess the distribution of such morphotypes we implemented an automated pipeline capable of (1) identifying potentially cell-associated objects in the SEM-derived images; (2) computing object-level features; and (3) classifying these objects into their corresponding classes. The machine learning approach used a Random Forest (RF) classifer whose overall accuracy reached 85% on the test dataset, with per-class specifcity above 90%, and sensitivity between 66 and 94%. Additionally, the RF model indicates that structural and texture features, e.g., object area, eccentricity, and contrast, are most relevant for classifcation. The RF results agree with the observed variation in these features, consistently also with visual inspection of SEM images. Finally, our work introduces morphological variants of Cryptococcus spp. capsule. These can be promptly identifed and characterized using computational models so that future work may unveil morphological associations with yeast virulence

Extended fisheries jurisdiction: origins of the current crisis in Atlantic Canada's fisheries

With Canada's Atlantic fisheries in a state of acute crisis because of a severe reduction in groundfish populations, the government is developing strategies to reduce harvesting and processing capacity by 50%. The current difficulties are attributed, at least in part, to excessive overexpansion of the fisheries following the declaration of Extended Fisheries Jurisdiction in 1977. On several occasions in the past, the Canadian government has faced the problem of fishing overcapacity, but on each occasion attempts to reduce employment in the fishery have been stymied. The operative forces are discussed; those which halted 'downsizing' in the past still exist.

Is there any hope for fisheries management?

Fisheries is not the only discipline where models have been used in attempts to fine tune an aspect of the economy. Such fine-tuning can prove ineffective because of the uncertainties in the scientific underpinnings of the models and because of the omission of critical elements. In fisheries, the biological goal is to set allowable catches so that the harvest is not so large that it endangers the future health of the fish stock while it is not so low as to waste food, while the economic goal is to maximize the net economic rent generated by the fishery. It has long been recognized that the science underlying the setting of the total allowable catch is often too uncertain to justify such fine tuning, and that attempts to achieve that delicate balance has helped lead to crises in fisheries. One solution is to abandon such marginalism in favor of seriously reducing current catches.Fisheries management Small core fishery Overfishing Keynesian models Newfoundland fisheries Fisheries management and uncertainty Fisheries management and environmental effects

The failure of Canadian seasonal fishermen's unemployment insurance reform during the 1960s and 1970s

The fishermen's unemployment insurance system in Canada must be among the most controversial aspects of this most controversial of industries. The implementation of the system in 1957 did nothing to stem the tide of opposition. While virtually every "expert" who has ever looked at the system has suggested that seasonal fishermen be removed from unemployment insurance coverage, there have been only two serious attempts to do so. The first occurred during the first half of the 1960s, following the release of the Gill Report. The second occurred during the mid-1970s following an ultimately abortive federal Cabinet directive. The primary question asked, and answered, is why in the face of determined opposition to the system, did attempts to reform the fishermen's unemployment scheme repeatedly fail.unemployment insurance fisheries Canada Newfoundland