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This paper investigates the competition between domestic catfish fillets and imported tilapia fillets in the US market. The market segmentation between fresh and frozen fillets of both species is also considered. The substitutability between catfish and tilapia is of interest because market reports have recently suggested that the rapid increase in tilapia imports in the last few years is the result of tilapia taking market share from domestically produced catfish. The competition between fresh and frozen fillets of catfish and tilapia imports in the same market is examined using market integration and demand analysis. The results indicate that imports of fresh and frozen tilapia fillets lie in different market segments, while fresh and frozen catfish fillets compete in the same market. Furthermore, fresh and frozen fillets of catfish and tilapia imports do not compete in the same market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper chronicles rent-seeking in the U.S. Atlantic sea scallop fishery, including its influence on property rights formation. Decades of lobbying by the U.S. fishing industry against foreign fishing and seafood imports caused Congress to extend federal jurisdiction to 200 miles in 1977. Scallop fishermen initially earned high profits for their efforts, but by about 1990 the overcapitalized fishery was surviving on new year classes. Limited access and a stock rebuilding program were introduced in 1994, but an asymmetric distribution of potential gains in favor of relatively few, multi-permit companies has preoccupied public debate on the transferability and consolidation of fishing rights. Rent-seeking by the limited-access permit holders is now also focused on claims by the growing open-access sector of the scallop fishery, groundfish bycatch limitations, and gear-induced habitat damage, which has drawn lawsuits from environmental organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Random utility models rely on the properties of the logistic distribution for ease of estimation, but this distribution implies the independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA). The random parameters logit model offers a means of avoiding the IIA assumption as well as greater heterogeneity among agents, recreational anglers or beachgoers in the current application. A problem often encountered in the estimation of random utility models with many alternatives is the necessity of sampling alternatives or otherwise reducing the number of choices. Research has shown that in the random utility model, such changes in choice set still lead to consistent parameter estimates. However, with the random parameters logit, there is greater need to sample but no theoretical evidence that sampling is justified. In this paper we show the impact of sampling in a random parameters logit model. We find that sampling does not appear to change the parameter estimates substantially. We investigate two data sets: a study of beach use in the Chesapeake Bay and a study of marine recreational angling behavior for the Northeast of the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we estimate the economic value associated with marine recreational fishing in the southeast United States using the random utility model. The data used is the Southeast (North Carolina to Louisiana) Marine Recreational Fishery Statistics Survey (SE MRFSS). The geographic extent of the market and potential catch are used to determine the effect of choice set definition on random utility model parameter and welfare estimates. We find that choice sets based on distance or catch do not lead to large differences in the compensating variation of a fishing trip. Defining choice sets based on catch does lead to insignificant estimates of the effect of one measure of site quality on site selection. We also find differences in the value of an additional fish when comparing alternative measures of site quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The individual transferable quota (ITQ) system for wreckfish (Polyprion americanus) in the south Atlantic will be an important test of the practical merits of individual quota management for finfish fisheries in the United States. This paper describes the wreckfish ITQ program in detail and discusses difficulties encountered in its development. Beyond providing information on the practical constraints of setting up ITQs to managers contemplating ITQs for other fisheries, another goal is to evaluate the degree to which the wreckfish ITQ program is accomplishing its resource conservation, economic, and conflict reduction objectives. Analysis of data and experiences over the one and one-half year period during which the wreckfish ITQ has been in place are provided. Linked to the discussion of accomplishing objectives is an evaluation of the degree that consolidation has taken place and the tradeoff between efficiency goals and concerns over monopoly power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial fishers are constantly exposed to many risk factors, making it a dangerous occupation. Fisheries management that limits access and catches can give rise to well-known stock and rule-of-capture externalities known as the "race to fish." This market failure dissipates rents and can lead fishers to take on additional risks such as fishing in poor weather, overloading vessels, or delaying maintenance to outcompete others. Rights-based management is expected to reduce the incentives to take on additional risk. Using a large dataset of fishers from around the United States, we empirically estimate the effects of individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs on one important risk factor: the decision to fish in poor weather. We find that risk-taking behavior generally decreases under IFQs, but the magnitude of the shift differs by fishery, and we explore potential drivers of these differences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the development of fisheries regulation in the U.S. from 2005 to 2010. Consequence of open access in fisheries in the country; Characteristics of the present paradigm for fisheries management; Significance of the present paradigm to the industry.

Some perspectives of neo-institutional economics are used to reexamine the common pool fishery. Applications of properly rights theory in models simulating the evolution of fisheries management suggest that even in the presence of positive information and transactions costs (ITCs), resource users may have incentives to sequentially negotiate rules of common pool use. Such a result might imply that fisheries managers should he more concerned with ITCs than inefficiencies due to overcapitalization. This impression is further reinforced in collective choice examples taken from U.S. fisheries management. These comparative cases of public decision making in New England and Alaska suggest that variations in the style of public management as well as other aspects such as fleet heterogeneity might cause variations in management effectiveness. These variations in effectiveness may be related to the ITC environment internal to the public agencies, as well as to the external ITC environment they face. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When estimating commercial fishing costs, selection bias can impact any model derived from non-census sampling methodologies. In the northeastern United States, commercial fishing operating cost models may suffer from selection bias, as they are often estimated using data collected for biological, rather than economic, purposes. We investigate the effects of sampling bias on trip cost model estimations using weighted/unweighted least squares and Heckman sample selection models. Results suggest that (1) the propensity for a trip to carry an observer is not random with respect to costs and that (2) selection bias exists in the majority of cost models investigated. To gauge the magnitude of selection bias, we compare results of the unweighted least squares and Heckman models. The differences between models can lead to erroneous conclusions at the subfleet level and in estimating trip cost maxima. Results suggest that assessing and correcting for selection bias is necessary when using sampled fishing cost data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National-level empirical research can inform how policy can effectively support direct seafood markets. The US Department of Agriculture maintains a directory of farmers markets that has not been extensively used in direct seafood marketing research. I use this directory data to estimate the probability that farmers markets near commercial fishing ports in the United States offer seafood. The results provide insight into two policy-relevant constraints on direct marketing: (1) geographic limits to seafood sales at farmers markets and (2) accessibility challenges for low-income populations. I find that seafood sales at farmers markets are concentrated within 50 miles of commercial fishing ports and that lower-income people are less likely to have access to seafood at farmers markets. I discuss advances made in collecting data from direct marketing farmers and the potential value in collecting analogous data from direct marketing fishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tradable harvest rights are gradually replacing prescriptive regulations in the management of commercial fisheries. We provide evidence that this management strategy can also successfully achieve non-commercial marine conservation goals, such as limiting unintended catch (bycatch) of protected species. We examine fishers' responses to the introduction of tradable harvest rights for protected species, 'bycatch rights,' in the US West Coast groundfish fishery, finding evidence of adjustment along several margins and estimating the marginal cost of conservation. Fishers adapted to bycatch rights by changing fishing location, gear, time of day fished, and duration of fishing activity. As a result, catches of protected species fell dramatically. The nuanced nature of fishers' responses indicates that the least-cost way of achieving conservation goals can involve fine-tuned behavioral adaptations that would be difficult or impossible to achieve with command-and-control regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial fishing is generally hazardous, but some types of commercial fishing are more dangerous than others. Since much of the fishing industry is composed of small family-owned businesses, commercial fishermen often have to rely on the private health insurance markets. Do commercial fishermen working in more dangerous areas or with more dangerous gear mitigate their risk by purchasing health insurance? I examine the relationship between the economics of the North Carolina commercial fishing fleet and private market health insurance purchases in the two years immediately preceding the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. Establishing this baseline is important, as the slow implementation of the Act's expanded coverage will take time to make meaningful impacts on commercial fishing fleets. I close by considering which aspects of commercial fishing might be most affected by the ACA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the process whereby fishing capital accumulates and excess capacity emerges, particularly in fisheries where incentives for race to fish and race to invest are present, and where capital is not perfectly malleable, remains an important topic. We develop a dynamic model, incorporating quasi-malleable capital, race to fish and invest behaviors and myopic expectations, in which the level of excess capacity is endogenously determined. We show the importance of capital malleability, and of other biological and economic conditions, in determining the existence and strength of persistent equilibrium excess capacity in the fishery. We also highlight a link between the state of the fishery at the time race behavior emerges and the resultant level of excess capacity. Our results have implications for both the management of excess capacity and the use of empirical measures of excess capacity as performance indicators in fisheries where race behaviors are present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wreckfish individual transferable quota (ITQ) program started in 1992 and is the oldest finfish ITQ program in the United States. Initially, the program appeared to be a success, bringing order to the previous years' derbies. Ex-vessel prices rose, harvest stabilized, and there was an orderly shrinking of the fleet to an economically appropriate size. The subsequent history of the fishery is more complex. ITQ sales dwindled in 1995, then ceased for 13 years. Harvest plummeted to barely a tenth of the eligible quota, and in 2010 the fleet's quota was reduced 88%. Was the wreckfish ITQ program a failure? We provide the first published analysis of the program in two decades. We examine the decisions of former participants to leave the fishery. We also examine the program's current economic, biological, and regulatory performance compared to the program's original stated goals and the goals associated with ITQs in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American lobster (Homarus americanus) fishery is currently the most valuable fishery on the Atlantic coasts of both the USA and Canada based on ex-vessel value. Lobster conservation policies have traditionally focused on technical restrictions such as minimum size requirements, v-notching, and a prohibition on taking egg-bearing females to protect the resource, rather than direct controls on fishing effort or catch. However, in 2005 the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission adopted a plan for the southern New England lobster management area (Area 2) that establishes a structure for limiting the number of license holders and the number of traps each lobsterman can have in the water. In this article, a bio-economic modeling exercise is employed to examine the biological and economic impacts of reductions to the level of fishing effort in a fishery that is modeled to represent the full-time lobster fishing fleet in Area 2. Model results show that a reduction in fishing effort has the potential to: (i) improve the sustainability characteristics of the lobster resource and, in contrast to popular belief, (ii) actually stimulate economic growth in the coastal economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the various uses of fishing capacity analysis in commercial fisheries managed by the U.S. government based on the lessons learned by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The use of capacity analysis includes estimating the levels of fishing capacity and overcapacity. The primary lesson learned is that the capacity of a fishing fleet is similar to the capacity of a room. Another lesson learned is that a variety of methods can be used to determine overcapacity.

The purpose of this research is to assess any risk-shifting behavior in the catfish market between processors and farmers. Over 93% of farm-raised catfish are sold through fish processing companies, and processors largely dictate the terms of trade, particularly size requirements. The classic agency theory model was used to investigate the relationship between catfish processors (principals) and catfish farmers (agents). The study used time-series regression techniques, incorporated into the classic principal-agent model, to examine the risk behavior of catfish processors. Results indicate that catfish processors do not shift risk, but bear all market risk. It appears that catfish processors maximize expected payoff by paying lower price to farmers and extract trade gains from bearing the market risks. Farmers may implicitly be paying high premiums by receiving lower prices. Delivery rights offered to catfish farmers as incentives for them to meet certain delivery conditions do not appear to have shifted risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]