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This paper addresses the question of how management response to pollution in a fishery affects the incidence of economic damages. We develop a spatially explicit bioeconomic model which is used to examine the effects of an acute pollution event. Two scenarios are considered, both involving a prohibition on shellfish harvesting in the area affected by pollution, but distinguished according to the freedom given to vessels to move out of the affected area. The model suggests that closing an area to fishing may have widespread economic repercussions if it is linked biologically or technically with others. The decision to allow or disallow boats to move from an affected area is shown to make a crucial difference in the level and variability of profits in the fishery system as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]