A REVIEW OF APPLICATIONS OF MULTIPLE - CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING TECHNIQUES TO FISHERIES

Management of public resources, such as fisheries, is a complex task. Society, in general, has a number of goals that it hopes to achieve from the use of public resources. These include conservation, economic, and social objectives. However, these objectives often conflict, due to the varying opinions of the many stakeholders. It would appear that the techniques available in the field of multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) are well suited to the analysis and determination of fisheries management regimes. However, to date, relatively few publications exist using such MCDM methods compared to other applicational fields, such as forestry, agriculture, and finance. This paper reviews MCDM applied to fishery management by providing an overview of the research published to date. Conclusions are drawn regarding the success and applicability of these techniques to analyzing fisheries management problems.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Comparaison des indicateurs d’efficacité et des indicateurs économiques des navires de pêche dans le cas d’une multi-production

Les situations de surcapacité sont récurrentes dans l’activité d’exploitation des ressources marines vivantes. Les mesures de capacité d’utilisation et d’efficacité des navires de pêche deviennent dès lors nécessaires. Dans cet article, la méthode DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) est utilisée dans le cas d’une multi-production. Les données de production et d’utilisation des inputs des navires de pêche sont disponibles sur une base mensuelle pour la période 1994-2003. Les indicateurs d’efficacité des navires sont ensuite comparés à des indicateurs de performance économique issus d’une base de données comptables. Il ressort de l’analyse que les navires les plus performants en terme d’efficacité n’obtiennent pas nécessairement les meilleurs résultats économiques. Ceci est surtout vérifié pour les plus petites unités dont le comportement est plus hétérogène que les navires de plus grande capacité potentielle de production.optimisation techniques, capacity, fishery

Comparing Capacity Utilisation, Allocative Efficiency and Financial Performance in the Trawl Fisheries of Brittany (1994-2003)

Overcapacity situations appear regularly in the activity of marine natural resource exploitation. The measure of capacity utilisation and allocative efficiency for fishing vessels is an approach that can determine the details of that overcapacity. On the one hand, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) methodology can be used in the case of multi-production to produce individual measures of economic performances, defined through the concept of efficiency. On the other hand, the assessment of financial performance requires the availability of individual data on cost and earnings for the same set of fishing firms. The former method is based on outputs (landings by species) and inputs (fixed and variable) and provides a relative measure for firms (or Decision-making units) being compared, hence at least one firm will lie on the frontier in a DEA analysis. In this context, capacity utilisation, technical efficiency and economic (or revenue) efficiency are main results derived from a linear programming model. Allocative efficiency can be derived from economic and technical efficiency as a final score. The latter approach gives a measure of financial performance from individual bookkeeping data. Gross revenue and gross surplus can then be used to compare financial performance of trawlers with their economic performance computed from DEA model. Both methods are used and compared for the same set of vessels, namely the commercial trawl fisheries of the French region of Brittany

The Effects of Unilateral Cost Recovery in an International Fishery

A recent analysis of the potential for management cost recovery in the UK suggested that such a policy would be detrimental to UK fishers if other European countries did not implement a similar charging policy. Most of the waters exploited by UK fishers are also exploited by fishers from other European member states, and hence the additional cost burden on the UK fishers may result in some boats leaving the fishery. In the longer term, the reduced effort may result in stock recovery, providing increased benefits to the remaining vessels. However, in an international fishery, these benefits may also accrue to boats that have not been subjected to the cost recovery charge. In this paper, a bioeconomic model of the English Channel fisheries is used to assess the effects of introducing a unilateral management cost recovery levy on UK boats on the competitiveness and long term structure of both the UK and French fleets.Keywords: Cost recovery, bioeconomic model, genetic algorithm

Les objectifs d’une politique publique vus par les acteurs : une analyse multicritères de la politique commune de la pêche

Cet article présente la méthodologie et les résultats d’un projet de recherche consacré aux objectifs de la politique commune de la pêche. Une technique d’analyse multicritères est utilisée pour révéler les  références des groupes d’acteurs en matière d’objectifs d’aménagement des pêcheries. Les résultats obtenus à l’aide de cette technique permettent de déterminer les coefficients de pondération d’un modèle d’optimisation multi-objectifs de la pêcherie utilisée comme cas d’étude. La comparaison des résultats du modèle obtenus avec différents systèmes de pondérations permet de préciser les implications des  références manifestées par chaque groupe d’acteurs et leur comparaison avec l’état réel de la pêcherie donne une vue de l’importance relative de chaque groupe dans le processus de décision. Dans le cas d’étude présenté, il apparaît que les structures de préférences manifestées par les représentants de  l’administration et des organisations professionnelles de la pêche sont proches l’une de l’autre et exercent  une influence plus significative que celle des experts scientifiques sur la politique d’aménagement de la  pêcherie.This paper presents the methodology and results of a research project dedicated to the objectives of the  Common Fisheries Policy. Stakeholders’ preferences concerning fisheries management objectives are  elicited with the help of a multicriteria decision analysis method, and are used as inputs in a multi-objective  optimisation model of the fishery under survey. Running the model with various preference systems helps  to assess the consequences of various stakeholders’ preferences on the state of the fishery. As regards the case under survey, the results of stakeholders’ preference elicitation and modelling suggest that public  authorities and representatives of the fishing industry share rather similar views on the objectives of  fisheries management, and influence the actual state of the fishery more significantly than scientists  involved in fisheries management

Physical Versus Harvest Based Measures of Capacity: The Case of the UK Vessel Capacity Unit System

The FAO International Plan of Action on the management of fishing capacity calls for all member states to provide estimates of the total capacity of their fleets by 2001. In the UK, a “capacity” measurement system is currently in place, based on vessel size and engine power. An assumption is made that this measure is related to the harvesting ability of the fleet, and is the basis of the existing capacity reduction programs. In this paper, the harvesting capacity of a sample of UK otter trawls and netter-liners is estimated using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Estimates are made on a species by species basis for the key species harvested. These are compared to the existing measures of physical capacity. Implications for capacity management based on the physical measures, given the results, are drawn.Keywords: Capacity, Capacity measurement, vessel capacity units, DEA

An Analysis of Changing Fishing Units Using Field Surveys: Case Studies from the EU

Three case studies were included in a study on fishing vessels, most of which use trawl gear in demersal fisheries. The case studies include the French Bay of Biscay bottom-trawlers, the English beam trawlers fishing in the English Channel, Celtic Sea and North Sea, and the Basque trawlers fishing in ICES areas VI, VII and VIII. The characteristics surveyed were based on operator, crew and boat information. Information included changes made to equipment on deck for handling and processing catch, engine changes and changes made to onboard electronics. Information on gear used and species targeted was also collected in order to describe various tactics and strategies. Investment decisions, in terms of acquiring a new vessel were mainly based on economic factors such as opportunity costs. Changes to deck equipment are regularly made to increase efficiency and there is a tendency in each fishery to reduce the number of crew, as this reduces costs. The replacement of an engine was linked to the engine breaking down or to reduce the risk of breakdown. The vast majority of vessels surveyed have installed state of the art onboard electronic equipment after it has become available. The rate of uptake averages about 9 years for GPS-PC linked devices (in terms of average time of the majority of the uptake). This new electronic equipment is used to locate productive areas. Modifications made to gear primarily appear to be to increase efficiency and in some cases may be in response to changing fishing opportunities. External factors constrain fishing operations and in order to remain competitive fishermen require changes in technology to achieve greater efficiency. Output-based fisheries management strategies do not necessarily take into account these changes in efficiency leading to situations where effective fishing effort is greater than the reported nominal effort

Landing Obligation Economic Impact Analysis

Seafish has undertaken an economic impact assessment (EIA) of the landing obligation for key UK fleets targeting demersal stocks. The purpose of the EIA is to provide information that supports decision-making and understanding at a fleet segment, home nation and national level. The EIA has been undertaken in two phases: choke analysis and bioeconomic scenario analysis. The choke analysis provides a view of what the activity of six UK fleet segments would have been in 2013 had the proposed rules for the landing obligation in 2016 and 2019 been in place. This provides a high level, worst case snapshot of choke stocks by fleet indicating how many days fishing could have been achieved in 2013 before the primary choke stock quota was exhausted. The analysis is performed for each major sea area surrounding the UK. Following on from the choke analysis, the scenario analysis answers the question, what are the potential outcomes for the fleet from the introduction of various landing obligation policy levers? The model includes policy levers such as exemptions (de minimis and surviviability), derogations (inter-species flexibility) and quota uplift (top-up) and considers two views of quota held by fleet: initial quota allocation and end of year quota held (approximated by landings). The scenarios simulate the possible outcomes over the coming years and identify issues of resilience, viability and vulnerability in key segments of the UK fleet. This paper presents the model and reviews the methodology used in the two phases of the Seafish UK landing obligation EIA.Proceedings of the Eighteenth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade, held July 11-15, 2016 at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Center (AECC), Aberdeen, Scotland, UK

Empirical Analysis of Fishing Fleet Dynamics: Entry, Stay and Exit Choices in Selected EU Fisheries

The decision to enter or exit a fishery can be expected to depend on the anticipated profitability of operating in this fishery, as a function of observed vessel performances in previous years. For a vessel exiting a fishery, there may be several reasons including decommissioning, selling or operating elsewhere. Entry may be related to new vessels, or to vessels transferring from other fisheries. Modelling the behaviour of fishers with respect to their entering and exiting strategy can inform as to the impact of a proposed management policy and other external factors (e.g. changes in market, fuel costs and stock size), which can have major impact on the structure of fishing fleets. Three European cases studies are considered to understand the determinants of the observed changes in fleet size relating to such factors. In each case, a multinomial (unordered) logit model is used as the basis for analysis. Case studies considered include the Basque trawl fleet operating in the Bay of Biscay, the French 16-20m trawler fleet based in ports of Southern Brittany, and the English beam trawl fleet operating in the North Sea. Results confirm that in addition to individual vessel characteristics, both expected revenues and the additional incentives provided by decommissioning schemes have a bearing on a vessels’ participation in a fishery