Marine Resource Economics

Fishery collapse has been defined as a fishery with annual landings less than 10% of the historic maximum observed catch. However, this 10% rule is not grounded in bioeconomic theory despite being widely used in empirical economic studies of fisheries. We assess the 10% rule by simulating fisheries under pure open access, open access with cost changes, open access with critical depensation, optimal management (both deterministic and stochastic cases), and rebuilding plans. We show that the 10% rule generates false negatives and false positives, and that the prevalence of these problems varies under different institutional configurations, economic incentives, and biological conditions. We urge researchers to abandon this outcome measure for comparative empirical tests and encourage more research on collapse that attends to human agency and institutions.

Because of economic development and food safety concerns, an increasing number of middle-class consumers in China are demanding higher-quality food and more environmentally friendly food production methods. In this paper, we design a choice experiment to assess Chinese consumers’ preference for high-quality imported salmon through their willingness to pay (WTP) for various product attributes, especially the production environment attribute. We included a policy consequentiality script at the beginning of the survey and a consequentiality perception check at the end to test the effect of the device on Chinese consumers’ survey responses. The results show that Chinese consumers value the safety certification label of salmon with the highest premium, followed by chilled, wild-caught, and dark red color attributes of salmon. The WTP premiums from the consumers who were provided with the consequentiality script are significantly lower than those from consumers not provided with such a script, and the consequentiality perceptions are also enhanced by the script treatment.

The growing aquaculture industry is facing several challenges including risks and uncertainties. Studies exploring farmers’ risk perceptions and risk management strategies are, however, limited within pond aquaculture, although they are well described within the field of agriculture. This study explores farmers’ risk perceptions and risk management strategies in pond aquaculture and the relationship of risk perceptions and risk management strategies with farm and farmers’ characteristics. The data are analyzed using principal component analysis and multivariate regression. The results show that price variability and financial risks are perceived as the most influential risk factors. Farm management and financing are perceived as the most effective risk management strategies. In most cases, farmers need to focus on more than one risk management strategy to address a particular type of risk. This study provides knowledge of farmers’ risk perceptions and strategies, which can be used to develop better and more focused management strategies.

The authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments that helped substantially to improve the paper. The authors would also like to thank the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) for its financial support for the project “Upgrading Pangas and Tilapia Value Chains in Bangladesh,” project number F38A26778, under which this research was conducted.

Small-scale fishers’ short-run supply decisions are understudied, often because of data limitations. We utilize a unique dataset of daily catches and prices from a mixed-species trawl fishery in Taiwan, characterized by targeting decisions made before prices are formed. To investigate the effect of expected prices on fishers’ supply decisions, we formulate a vector error correction model in a seemingly unrelated regression system of 11 fish species. We find a price-elastic short-run supply for several species: the maximum daily price elasticity of supply (PES) ranges from 0.4 to 1.1 and is statistically significant for all but one species. The long-run PES (approx. weekly) is >1 for eight species. In contrast, elasticity with respect to wave height is weak (the median short-run elasticity is −0.4). These findings are unexpected for trawl fisheries, which are believed to have low selectivity. Our results highlight the potential that auction markets have to incentivize fishing that emphasizes quality over quantity.

Bigeye tuna in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean were perceived as overfished for nearly 20 years, in large part because of incidental catch in the much larger skipjack tuna fishery. Efforts to halt the overfishing of bigeye stalled because of disagreements over the distribution of costs and benefits from reform. An alternative Coasean-style approach to setting both harvesting levels and the allocation of costs and benefits might offer a path forward. We calculate the costs and benefits of achieving bigeye conservation goals and describe an exchange through which benefits could be realized via removal of fish-aggregating devices (FADs). Through trade, aggregate benefits and costs are more apt to be in balance relative to mandated protection controls. The realities of bargaining costs in a multilateral setting are not underappreciated, but in light of existing stalemates in this and other fisheries, consideration of Coasean-style approaches is warranted.