Global Fisheries: Production and Challenges

World Fisheries Production and Problems

• Global fish production increases, driven by aquaculture growth, while capture fisheries remain stagnant.
• Overexploitation of ocean capture fisheries is a major problem, costing approximately $83 billion in economic losses in 2012.
• Maximum sustainable economic rent was estimated at $86 billion, while global fisheries profit was only $3 billion in 2012.

Current Problems in Marine Fisheries

• Overfishing
• Overcapitalization (excessive fishing fleet investment)
• Water pollution
• Conflicts over fishing rights (national and within-nations)
• Protection of marine ecosystems

Modeling Fisheries: Biological Growth Function

• A simple biological model shows fish biomass growth as a function of stock size (fish population).
• The equilibrium stock size in the absence of fishing yields a stable harvest level.
• Maximum sustained yield (MSY) occurs at stock size 𝑆𝑚 and harvest 𝑦𝑚, but this isn't an economically efficient solution.
• Sustained yields (below MSY) and associated stock sizes are stable, allowing for indefinite harvest.
• Other sustained yields can be maintained, but some are less sustainable and thus less efficient.
• There are many stable sustained yield and stock size pairs, but which is most efficient economically?

Yield/Effort Function

• Effort (fishing input) is a composite measure of all fishing inputs.
• Higher fishing effort reduces stock size, initially increasing yield, but eventually decreases sustainable yields.
• Maximum sustainable yield (MSY) corresponds to an effort level 𝐸𝑚.
• Exceeding 𝐸𝑚 leads to decreased growth and yields, making it inefficient.

Efficient Rates of Fishing Effort

• Profit maximization occurs at a different effort level (𝐸∗) than MSY.
• Higher stock levels are associated with maximum profit.
• Efficient effort minimizes total effort costs and maximizes sustained rent, achieving maximum sustained profit.
• Open-access fisheries generate lower and inefficient effort levels than efficient levels.

Open Access Problem

• Unrestricted access leads fishers to increase effort as long as profits are positive (when there is still some resource rent).
• Open-access equilibrium occurs where total revenue equals total cost; there's no resource rent.
• All the resource rent gets dissipated by open access and inefficient expenditure.

Regulating Fishing Practices

• Command-and-control policies restrict fishing practices (e.g., area closures, fishing days, gear restrictions).
• Command and control policies are generally inefficient as they often raise the relative cost of fishing and do not eliminate inefficiencies.

Total Allowable Catch (TAC) Limits

• TAC restricts the total harvest, but is inefficient without further measures.
• TAC alone is inefficient and doesn't protect resource rent.
• Fishermen increase effort to maximize their share of the TAC, leading to over-capitalization.

Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs)

• ITQs allocate fixed catch quotas to individual fishers, transferable between them.
• ITQs control the total harvest while allowing low-cost fishers to exploit the resources more efficiently.
• ITQs increase fishery efficiency.
• ITQs maximize resource rent for all involved participants.

Issues of Efficient Fisheries Management

• ITQs create private benefits from a public resource.
• Government taxes on quotas could capture resource rent for the benefit of the broader public.
• Political influence and lobbying for higher catch quotas can be problems or further reduce efficiencies to the system.
• ITQs may cause contraction of fisheries and negative impacts on some coastal communities.
• Enforcement of ITQs to ensure fishers do not exceed their limits can be problematic and incentivise "poaching" for rent.

Explore the complexities of global fisheries production and the problems surrounding marine ecosystems. This quiz covers overfishing, economic impacts, and models of biological growth functions in fisheries. Test your knowledge on current challenges and sustainable practices in the fishing industry.