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This paper investigates the degree of market integration between several product forms of US wild salmon and Norwegian farmed salmon. While several studies have investigated the link between farmed salmon and fresh and/or frozen wild salmon markets, we expand the literature with the inclusion of the products canned salmon and salmon roe. Understanding how canned salmon and salmon roe are related to the broader salmon market is of importance to US fisheries, as these products are high-price exports for the United States. Our results find evidence of cointegration between the Norwegian farmed salmon market and all US salmon products. Domestic and international economic conditions, such as production technological advances within farmed salmon production, environmental challenges, and changes in trade regulations, which affect the market for farmed salmon, will hence also influence US prices of frozen and canned salmon, as well as salmon roe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture is a controversial issue in the U.S.A., and to what extent U.S. aquaculture stakeholders support its expansion determines the future of this industry. This paper compares the perceptional differences of aquaculture stakeholders in the U.S.A. and Norway, and investigates how their perceptions influence their decisions to support aquaculture development. Original data were collected from an online survey of key aquaculture stakeholders and experts in both countries. Based on multinomial logit models, all of the perception variables contribute significantly to the likelihood that an aquaculture stakeholder is willing to support aquaculture expansion. These findings provide useful information for U.S. and Norwegian aquaculture policymakers, regulators, and stakeholders regarding how perceptions influence decisions; the key perceptional differences between the U.S.A. and Norway; and how policies, practices, and education could change perceptions of aquaculture stakeholders and thereby the future of U.S. and Norwegian aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

The American Fisheries Act (AFA) of 1998 significantly altered the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands pollock fishery by allowing the formation of harvesting and processing cooperatives and defining exclusive fishing rights. This paper uses data envelopment analysis and stochastic production frontier models to examine effects of the AFA on the fishing capacity, technical harvesting efficiency (TE), and capacity utilization (CU) of pollock catcher-processors. Results from multi-input, multi-output models indicate that fishing capacity fell by more than 30% and that harvesting TE and CU measures increased relative to past years. This work provides examples of how existing data, which is currently devoid of operator costs and provides only general indicators of earnings, may be used to analyze changes in elements of fleet and vessel performance in response to management actions. [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]

The United States Congress recently passed a law that creates an alternative to individual transferable quota (ITQ) management. The American Fisheries Act promises the ability to rationalize one of the world's largest fisheries, the North Pacific pollock fishery, without the overt appearance of allocating permanent property rights to a public resource. The Act enabled pollock fishers to form cooperative bargaining units that are guaranteed a fixed share of the total allowable catch (TAC) providing they deliver to historic processors. This paper explores the evolution of that policy change and the innovative use of fishery cooperatives to advance voluntary decapitalization and rationalization that Congress intended to benefit both vessels and processors. Game theory offers insights into the likelihood of achieving congressional intent. It is argued that while the Act is Pareto improving, it may violate the legislative intent of win-win rationalization and may introduce a market failure while attempting to rid the fishery of the open-access externality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experimental fishing vessel buyout program was initiated in 1995 to remove vessels from the Northeast United States groundfish fishery. Information provided by the applicants to this program was used to evaluate the likely participation and potential cost of an expanded buyout initiative. This paper describes the pilot buyout program and the econometric procedures used to forecast participation and bids at various levels of program spending. Program participation and bid levels were modeled in two stages using participation and bid functions. The expanded buyout program, completed in April 1998, provided a unique opportunity to evaluate initial participation and cost forecasts. Methods used in this study are also applicable to modeling other fishery related economic decisions, such as the trading of individual transferable quota shares. [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]

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 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]

The purpose of this paper is to test for price linkages among European (France, Germany, and U.K.) and U.S. prices of whole fresh cod and frozen cod fillets. In testing for a cointegrated system, we use both the two-stage Engle-Granger and Johansen procedures. Short-run price dynamics are measured using an error-correction model. Based on monthly import price observations from 1980 to 1992, the empirical results show no long-run price relationships for fresh cod between European and U.S. markets, but we do measure long-run price linkages for frozen cod fillets. Within Europe the markets for both fresh and frozen cod product are well integrated. The U.S. fresh cod market is distinct and separate from European markets, while the U.S. frozen cod market shows no short-run links to European markets. There is weak evidence for a long-run international market in frozen cod fillets. [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]