A new model has been developed by economists at two universities in the US which could help fishermen make more money while reducing the risk of fishery depletion.
The empirical bioeconomic model developed by Professor Martin Smith of the Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Professor Ling Huang from the University of Connecticut, was created using six years of previously unavailable fine-scale fishing data from the North Carolina shrimp fishery.
Professor Smith said: “We’re not talking about a trivial improvement. In some cases, we found that identifying the most efficient practices led to a 20% annual increase in total revenues if the fishery is managed differently. Under perfect conditions, you could see up to a 49% increase in profits on average.”
During the development of the model, the data yielded some surprises including questioning the conventional wisdom that having too many boats out at the same time is a bad thing because of increased competition equalling lower profits. Although this is true in the short-term, there’s a potential long-term benefit fishery managers may be overlooking.
“When people’s profits drop due to congestion, they tend to fish less. This means more of the shrimp left in the water get to grow to larger sizes and can be harvested later in the season for higher prices,” Professor Smith said. “So in some cases, congestion can actually increase potential late-season profits and reduce the risk of fishery depletion.”
This he said could help improve how other fisheries are managed because it questions the standard one-size-fits-all management approach of allocating sustainable catch limits to individual fishermen on an annual basis.
