Daniel S. Holland

Marine Reserves for Fisheries Management

Conventional methods of regulating commercial fisheries restrict catch by limiting either the quantity or efficiency of fishing effort, or by putting direct limits on catch. These regulatory practices are neither feasible nor desirable for many fisheries, and have failed to conserve fishery stocks in other fisheries. Marine reserves may be an effective alternative management strategy for some fisheries. Here we develop a dynamic model of marine reserves applicable to inshore fisheries. In contrast to previous models of reserves, the model is fully dynamic and provides information on both equilibrium conditions and the path to equilibrium. A simulation model based on red snapper data from the Gulf of Mexico is presented. The simulation results suggest that marine reserves can sustain or increase yields for moderate to heavily fished fisheries but will probably not improve yields for lightly fished fisheries.

Location Choice in New England Trawl Fisheries: Old Habits Die Hard

In his seminal work on common property resources, H. Scott Gordon proposed that in a fishery with multiple grounds, effort would be distributed such that profit rates would be equal among them. Gordons model relies on implicit assumptions that are inaccurate and lead to false conclusions in many cases. In this paper, we present an empirically estimated model of fishery and location choice for large trawlers in New England using a random-utility framework with a nested-logit model specification. We use the model to test the validity of a behavioral model developed from ethnographic interviews with skippers.

Do fishing vessel buyback programs work: A survey of the evidence

Abstract Vessel and license buyback programs are being used increasingly as a tool to reduce overcapacity in fisheries. This paper examines buybacks programs in a number fisheries around the world, in order to evaluate their effectiveness in achieving their objectives. We show that, though the objectives are usually similar, the design of different buyback programs varies widely with important ramifications. Although proper design can improve the performance of buyback programs, we conclude that buyback programs are generally not an effective way to address the problems they are meant to solve.

The Fishery Performance Indicators: A Management Tool for Triple Bottom Line Outcomes

Pursuit of the triple bottom line of economic, community and ecological sustainability has increased the complexity of fishery management; fisheries assessments require new types of data and analysis to guide science-based policy in addition to traditional biological information and modeling. We introduce the Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs), a broadly applicable and flexible tool for assessing performance in individual fisheries, and for establishing cross-sectional links between enabling conditions, management strategies and triple bottom line outcomes. Conceptually separating measures of performance, the FPIs use 68 individual outcome metrics—coded on a 1 to 5 scale based on expert assessment to facilitate application to data poor fisheries and sectors—that can be partitioned into sector-based or triple-bottom-line sustainability-based interpretative indicators. Variation among outcomes is explained with 54 similarly structured metrics of inputs, management approaches and enabling conditions. Using 61 initial fishery case studies drawn from industrial and developing countries around the world, we demonstrate the inferential importance of tracking economic and community outcomes, in addition to resource status.

Predicting Consumer Preferences for Fresh Salmon: The Influence of Safety Inspection and Production Method Attributes

A rank-ordered logit model is estimated using data collected by a mail survey of consumers in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States. The methodology, based on conjoint analysis, determines the average relative importance and value of three product attributes for fresh salmon (seafood inspection, production method, and price), and estimates the relative attractiveness of particular products to consumers. When used in combination with demographic data and responses to questions on perceptions, the analysis suggests market segmentations and potential marketing strategies based on the heterogeneity in preferences among consumers.

Are Fishermen Rational? A Fishing Expedition

Uncertainty is a defining characteristic of fisheries. Fishermen make decisions affecting their livelihood daily and even hourly, often with scant information on which to evaluate alternatives. Cognitive psychologists and behavioral economists have shown that decisions involving uncertainty often diverge substantially from what would be predicted by expected utility theory. I review relevant findings from the literature on decision making under uncertainty and previous empirical modeling of fishing decisions, and explore the implications of a number of different behavioral theories on fishing decisions of various types. Excerpts from ethnographic interviews of groundfish fishermen in New England are used to illustrate how these fishermen deal with uncertainty in decisions they make about when, where, how, and how long to fish. The interviews provide anecdotal evidence in support of prospect theory and other behavioral hypotheses that appear to contrast with what would be considered rational behavior from a neoclassical economics perspective.

Use of Incentive-Based Management Systems to Limit Bycatch and Discarding

In most fisheries, a number of species are unintentionally caught as bycatch while attempting to catch the targeted species. While much of the bycatch problem is technological in nature due to imperfect selectivity of the fishing gear, fisher behaviour also plays a major role. How, when and where fishers choose to fish can influence catch composition and thereby the quantity of bycatch. Behavioural changes can be encouraged through the development of an appropriate set of incentives — both economic and social — to avoid bycatch and reduce discarding. In this paper, a number of alternative incentive-based bycatch management systems are reviewed. The potential applicability of these systems to quota species, non-commercial species and threatened or conservation-dependent species (such as turtles, seals, dolphins) is reviewed, and examples of their application are presented. The review concludes that incentive-based approaches can reduce the level of bycatch and discarding in most fisheries.

Spatial Fishery Rights and Marine Zoning: A Discussion with Reference to Management of Marine Resources in New England

The absence of property rights leads to dissipation of resource rents in fisheries. Economists have long recommended the assignment of property rights to the fishery as a means to internalize the stock externalities that lead to rent dissipation. However, there is less agreement and little research on the optimal nature of property rights for fisheries. Sole ownership of the fishery, while potentially efficient, is generally not politically acceptable. Individual transferable quota (ITQ) systems may fail to achieve an efficient outcome for a variety of reasons, many of which are related to spatial phenomena. Territorial user rights in fisheries (TURFs), also will generally fail to achieve efficient outcomes. This paper illustrates a number of cases where inefficiency may persist in a rights-based fishery management system. Some of the potential benefits and costs of territorial stock use rights in fisheries (T-SURFs) are discussed along with the role of marine zoning.

Spirituality as a Scientific Construct: Testing Its Universality across Cultures and Languages

Using data obtained from 4004 participants across eight countries (Canada, India, Japan, Korea, Poland, Slovakia, Uganda, and the U.S.), the factorial reliability, validity and structural/measurement invariance of a 30-item version of Expressions of Spirituality Inventory (ESI-R) was evaluated. The ESI-R measures a five factor model of spirituality developed through the conjoint factor analysis of several extant measures of spiritual constructs. Exploratory factor analyses of pooled data provided evidence that the five ESI-R factors are reliable. Confirmatory analyses comparing four and five factor models revealed that the five dimensional model demonstrates superior goodness-of-fit with all cultural samples and suggest that the ESI-R may be viewed as structurally invariant. Measurement invariance, however, was not supported as manifested in significant differences in item and dimension scores and in significantly poorer fit when factor loadings were constrained to equality across all samples. Exploratory analyses with a second adjective measure of spirituality using American, Indian, and Ugandan samples identified three replicable factors which correlated with ESI-R dimensions in a manner supportive of convergent validity. The paper concludes with a discussion of the meaning of the findings and directions needed for future research.

Social Capital and the Success of Harvest Cooperatives in the New England Groundfish Fishery

Abstract In May of 2010 a new management system based on harvest cooperatives called “sectors” was implemented in the U.S. Northeast Multispecies Groundfish Fishery. Sectors are self-organized, self-managed groups of fishermen that receive annual catch entitlements. We hypothesize that the success and longevity of these sectors is likely to depend, in part, on the relationships amongst the members including their degree of trust and ability to collaborate. The value of these relationships and the ability to cooperate is commonly referred to as social capital. Prior to the implementation of the new sector system, we conducted a survey to derive baseline measures of social capital for individual groundfish permit holders and sectors. We construct indices of bonding, bridging and linking social capital, information sharing, and trust. We explore correlations between these social capital indices, characteristic of the vessels in the sectors, and various measures of economic performance of sectors. JEL Classification Codes: Q22