The Management of High Seas Fisheries

A new and acute management problem, now the focus of a major U.N. conference, has arisen in recent years in international fisheries. The problem concerns the management of transboundary fishery resources, in the form of resources to be found in both the coastal state EEZ and the adjacent high seas. The resources are commonly referred to as "straddling" stocks. This article provides a preliminary exploration of the management issue. It reviews the historical and legal background and asks how far the now well developed economic analysis of the management of transboundary fishery resources in the form of resources "shared" by two or more coastal states will take us in examining this second and more recent transboundary fishery management problem. The answer is a very limited distance only. The article concludes by pointing to questions arising from this resource management issue demanding further research.Transboundary fishery resources, straddling stocks, theory of dynamic games, Environmental Economics and Policy, Public Economics,

CLIMATE AND COOPERATION: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON THE MANAGEMENT OF SHARED FISH STOCKS

Climate regime shifts occur at irregular intervals and have profound and persistent impacts on ocean temperature and circulation patterns and on the dynamics of marine fish populations. Despite a growing scientific literature and some attention to the implications of such regime shifts for domestic fisheries, the issue has received little attention in the context of international fishery management. This paper presents evidence for the significance of climatic regime shifts, and draws upon the recent history of conflict between Canada and the United States over Pacific salmon management to illustrate the dangers that unpredicted, unanticipated environmental regime shifts pose for efforts to maintain international cooperation. This suggests a need for greater attention to this issue. Fishery agreements can be made more resilient to the impacts of such environmental changes by explicitly building in flexibility — for example, by allowing the use of side payments. In addition, pre-agreements on procedures to be followed in the event of sustained changes in fish stock productivity or migration patterns, and cooperation on developing common scientific understandings, can help to prevent destructive conflicts. Finally, the literature employing game theoretic shared-fishery models could be further developed to focus on providing practical guidance for maintaining cooperation in the presence of unpredictable and persistent environmental changes.climate regimes, shared fisheries, potential conflicts, uncertainty, Q21, Q22, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Irreversible Investment and Optimal Fisheries Management: A Stochastic Analysis

In recent years, attention has been devoted to fishery management problems that arise because capital embodied in fishing fleets is often nonmalleable. having few if any alternative uses. This problem of irreversible investment was analyzed by Clark et al. (1979), using a deterministic model. In reality, however, most investment decisions must be made within an uncertain environment. This paper describes recent efforts to account for uncertainty in analyzing the problem of optimal fishery investment, where the uncertainty is caused by stochastic variability in the resource stock from year to year.Environmental Economics and Policy, International Development, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Risk and Uncertainty,

Scottish church music and musicians, 1500-1700

Abstract available: p 3-4

Stability and Success of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations

According to international law, straddling fish stocks should preferably be managed cooperatively through regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs). This paper analyzes the stability and success of these organizations through a game in partition function form based on the classical Gordon-Schaefer bioeconomic model. A comprehensive analysis of the economic and biological fundamentals that influence the success of coalition formation is provided. The results show that the larger the number of fishing states that compete for the fish stock the higher would be the relative gains from full cooperation, but the lower is the likelihood of large RFMOs being stable. It is also shown that the success of coalition formation is positively correlated with the degree of production cost asymmetry among fishing states and negatively with the overall level of efficiency.Straddling Fish Stock, Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, Unregulated Fishing, Bioeconomic Model, Coalition Formation Model, Free-Riding

Free Trade and Investment in the Fisheries Sector of the Asia-Pacific Region: An Economic Analysis of Tariffs

This paper was commissioned by the APEC Working Group on Fisheries to examine the economic impact of eliminating tariffs on fish and fish products in APEC economies. Chapter II provides a qualitative assessment of the impacts of liberalization of fisheries trade drawing on the available data and economic theory. Chapter III presents specific quantitative estimates of the impact on trade flows of fish and fish products using an econometrically estimated model of fisheries trade liberalization. Chapter IV summarizes the study’s overall conclusions. These are that the economic impact of the removal of tariffs on fish and fish products in the APEC region would be significant, but modest. It is estimated that, in value terms, the long- run increase in imports in the region, arising from the elimination of tariffs, would be less than 5 per cent of the 1995 level in value. The corresponding increase in exports would be equal to slightly less than 3 per cent of the 1995 level.international trade in fish and fish products, APEC region, impact of tariffs

Simulation evaluation of a low-altitude helicopter flight guidance system adapted for a helmet-mounted display

A computer aiding concept for low-altitude helicopter flight was developed and evaluated in a real-time piloted simulation. The concept included an optimal control trajectory-generation algorithm based upon dynamic programming and a helmet-mounted display (HMD) presentation of a pathway-in-the-sky, a phantom aircraft, and flight-path vector/predictor guidance symbology. The trajectory-generation algorithm uses knowledge of the global mission requirements, a digital terrain map, aircraft performance capabilities, and advanced navigation information to determine a trajectory between mission way points that seeks valleys to minimize threat exposure. The pilot evaluation was conducted at NASA ARC moving base Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS) by pilots representing NASA, the U.S. Army, the Air Force, and the helicopter industry. The pilots manually tracked the trajectory generated by the algorithm utilizing the HMD symbology. The pilots were able to satisfactorily perform the tracking tasks while maintaining a high degree of awareness of the outside world