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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]

In this paper a bioeconomic simulation of the U.S. fisheries for silver hake, Merluccius bilinearis, is presented. The model design combines elements of age-structured population and harvest yield models with economics of the silver hake fishery. The analysis evaluates both biological and economic effects of interest to managers, such as future yields or rebuilding of parental stock, as well as future revenues and net returns to vessels. The bioeconomic model is used to evaluate the economic implications of tradeoffs between alternative selection patterns in the U.S. Atlantic silver hake fishery. Throughout the study, a selection pattern is defined as the suite of age-specific selection coefficients that are applied to a fish population over time. The results indicate that shifting fishing pressure to younger age classes could result in short-run gains in economic value that may not be sustainable due to longer run declines in biomass, hence lowered fishery yield and value. By contrast, strategies to delay age at first capture may improve economic value over current levels with only modest reductions in short-run fishery yield. [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]

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]

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.

Focuses on sustainable fisheries management in the U.S. in the 21st century. Information on a report released by the Pew Oceans Commission in 2003 on the status of living marine resources, and the preliminary assessment report released by the U.S. Commission on Ocean policy in 2004 on living and nonliving marine resources in the country; Status of fisheries in the country as of 2005; Comparison of the reports released by both commissions.

Discusses the New England groundfish management system under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act in the U.S. Significance of the New England groundfish fishery for the coastal communities in the Northeast region; Details of the New England groundfish fishery management plan under the Act; Information on the economic assistance programs initiated by the U.S. Department of Commerce for the fishing sector.

A multiobjective bioeconomic policy model was developed for the United States Pacific whiting fishery. Pareto-optimal solutions for three policy objectives--rents, production, and female spawning biomass--were developed and analyzed using "hybrid" generating technique. Three policy instruments were considered: harvest quotas, fleet capacity limits, and allocation between shore-based and offshore fisheries. Results indicate that Pareto-optimal allocations to shore-based and at-sea industries wilt depend on the spatial and temporal characteristics of the stock and the assumptions regarding the harvesting and processing characteristics of each fleet. The analysis also suggests approaches for measuring opportunity costs associated with misidentifying "biological risk", and operationatizing the concept known as "optimum yield". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The costs of stocking salmonids in the Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan are estimated for 1985. Estimation procedures and costs per stocked and captured fish are presented. Fingerlings of a species were found in most cases to cost more per captured fish than yearlings. However chinook salmon fingerlings were least expensive at an average cost of only $0.35 per captured fish. Most expensive were brook yearlings and fingerlings at $12.67 and $10.14. respectively. While a full policy evaluation awaits additional research on species specific benefits, three tentative conclusions can be drawn for the Wisconsin fishery. First, the role of brook trout in the fishery should be reviewed. Second, despite difficulties with lake trout rehabilitation, the role of lake trout in the sport fishery is encouraging and may justify continued stocking. Finally, increased stocking of the popular chinook salmon may be justified if the recent problems of low capture-per-release rates can be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]