Catch Share Design, Part 3: Available Resources

         After deciding on the projects goals, the specific resource components must be chosen.  First and foremost, the decision must be made whether or not the target species will be managed by itself, in a single species program or in a multi-species management plan.  In general, the decision to create a multi-species fishery can be determined by the fact that many species are often caught together.  For example, many kinds of groundfish are caught together.  This is why the US west coast groundfish trawl managers have implemented an ITQ system that distributes quota for 64 species of rockfish, 14 species of flatfish, 6 species of roundfish, 6 species of sharks and skate, and others, totaling over 90 species in all.  The reason to create a single species program is when fisheries that result in relatively minimal bycatch are isolated geographically or in some other way, such as species specific gear (crab traps).

            The spatial nature of the fishery is also of critical importance to its management.  Often times the same species can be harvested in disparate areas where local populations must be taken into account, just as overall populations are considered.  If this is the case, what the CSDM calls “zones” can be established to further regulate the fishery over spatially different regions.

            Next in the management development is determining the catch.  With biologically based data, an economic assessment of effort is conducted to determine where current practices operate, a point called “open access”, and where the final goal will lie.  A typical American goal is maximum sustainable yield (MSY), which operates at a point where the rejuvenation of the stock is equal in any given year to the harvest and where this stock growth is maximized.  Some managers do set the goal where resource rents are maximized at maximum economic yield, but it is difficult to convince fishermen to decrease effort and accept a lower harvest than MSY because it often means fewer fishermen participating.

Catch Share Design, Part 2: Project Goals

Broken into three categories for improvement, the first chapter looks at the biological, economic, and social makeup of the fishery.  Goals are then set to either solve the purported problems, or maintain positive aspects of the fishery.  Overfishing is most often a problem to be addressed, as are diminishing profits for the historical users.  At the same time, these historical users may also wish to maintain the structure of the fleet and current participants.

While this may seem like a simple place to start, a main focus of the chapter was tradeoffs that must be made in order to preserve aspects that are most important.  For example, it is not always possible to preserve the makeup of the fleet while at the same time maximizing profits.  The underlying issue could be that too much effort is being applied, in which case the fleet’s structure may have to be drastically altered in order to meet the paramount biological goals and the secondary profit-maximizing goal.

            How will the manager determine what course of action to take?  We must read on…

Catch Share Design, Part 1: SEASALT

I'm currently in a Marine Economics course, and one main question that we hope to answer over the term is, "how do we compensate for uncertain property rights?"  The phrases individual transferrable quotas (ITQs) and Pigouvian tax are introduced as potential answers to the question, but these are attempts at answering the question and each come attached with a slew of other questions, some of which are impossible to determine precisely (such as the actual value of harvest before it is docked).
While perusing the EDF blog today, I happened upon this Catch Share Design Manual published in Nature.  The stated purpose of the manual is to assist fishermen and managers in implementing and maintaining catch share programs that set specific catch limits based on scientific data and have the flexibility to adapt as new information arises.  I have a dual purpose in writing about this manual: to track the applications of course material and to further enhance my own understanding of this massive topic of marine management.
If you noticed that this post is Part 1, you probably wondered what it is part 1 of.  Well, my project will be to digest the manual section by section and write about it, adding outside information and the occasional editorial.  This time, I'll discuss the acronym SEASALT.  The proposed purpose of this mnemonic is to convey in general terms the most important facets of a successful catch share program, and in the following paragraphs it will be broken down  and analyzed.
Secure- the holder of a catch share will be able to maintain rights to the share for a long enough time to benefit in the future from potential sacrifices today.  Many current programs have licenses or quotas that are not guaranteed, so the holder of that permission has minimal incentive to act in a way that considers future profit.
Exclusive- market goods are ideally rival and excludable, which means that one person's use diminishes everyone else's future use (rival) and the owner can prevent someone else's use (excludable).  Since technology in most fisheries is at the point that harvest is rival, a fishery must also become exclusive in order to properly realize its economic benefits.
All Sources- the catch limit includes both landed and discarded fish.
Scaled- whether at the national, state, regional or local level, managed fisheries must include appropriately scaled biological models, social systems and political factors.
Accountable- built into the fishery's management must be a system to hold the participants accountable, for obvious reasons: without oversight, individuals will put immediate individual gain before shared future benefits.
Limited- catches are set at scientifically appropriate levels.  Hopefully the manual delves into the topic of choosing the appropriate catch even if the biological data is known, based on other variables such as discount rate and long term goals.
Transferrable- what is ownership if you cannot sell it? By allowing quotas to be transferrable, the managers not only improve overall welfare by encouraging efficiency, they allow for third parties such as environmental groups to purchase catch shares if there is concern of overfishing.

From this definitional introduction, the manual will expand to determining and assigning rights, maintaining administration and providing case studies such as the example of managed Chilean mussels.