International audienceThe French fishing industry has a long history and its seafood market a wide variety of products. Despite the worldwide growth in ecolabelling schemes over the past decade, the French industry has only very recently shown an interest in such schemes. Growing consumer and retailer awareness of environmental issues in France has changed the situation and it is now of interest to look at the demand for seafood ecolabelling in relation to the public perception of commercial fishing. We analyse, using an ordered Probit model, the factors influencing consumer demand for seafood ecolabelling on the basis of a French survey carried out on more than 1000 consumers. Our results show a significant relationship between the acceptability of ecolabelling and certain purchase criteria. The production process characteristics in (origin, wild vs. farmed, level of natural stocks) impact more strongly on the demand for ecolabelling than product attributes (form, visual appeal, freshness). Consumers are also influenced more by regulation than by information, inaccurate or otherwise, they may have about the fishing industry. Finally, our analysis confirms a higher demand for ecolabelling from young, educated consumers, particularly those living in non-coastal areas

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The present study deals with asymmetric price transmission (APT) along the fish value chain by using a consistent threshold autoregressive (consistent TAR and momentum‐threshold autoregressive [M‐TAR]) model. A nonzero threshold captures strategic behaviors and adjustment costs that are not observable with small price changes around a zero threshold. Fish farming, because of greater control over supply, is expected to produce less asymmetry than wild harvesting. Asymmetry is notwithstanding found for both wild cod and farmed salmon marketed in France, but only with consistent thresholds and operating in opposite ways. The results are discussed with regard to the trade restrictions imposed by the Common Fisheries Policy. Cet article traite de l’asymétrie de transmission des prix (ATP) dans la filière des produits de la mer en utilisant un modèle autorégressif à effet de seuil (consistent TAR et M‐TAR). Un seuil non nul permet de révéler certains comportements stratégiques et des coûts fixes d’ajustement qui ne seraient pas observables sur de faibles variations de prix autour d’un seuil nul. On s’attend à ce que l’aquaculture, en vertu d’un degré de contrôle supérieur sur l’offre, engendre une plus faible asymétrie comparativement à la production halieutique. Une asymétrie de transmission est néanmoins observée à la fois dans le cas du cabillaud sauvage et du saumon d’élevage commercialisés en France, mais uniquement à partir de seuils endogènes et l’ATP agissant en sens opposé. Les résultats sont commentés au regard des restrictions commerciales imposés par la Politique Commune des Pêches européenne.

Effort rights‐based fisheries management (RBM) is less widely used than catch rights, whether for groups or individuals. Because RBM on catch or effort necessarily requires a total allowable catch (TAC) or total allowable effort (TAE), RBM is discussed in conjunction with issues in assessing fish populations and providing TACs or TAEs. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages, and there are trade‐offs between the two approaches. In a narrow economic sense, catch rights are superior because of the type of incentives created, but once the costs of research to improve stock assessments and the associated risks of determining the TAC and costs of monitoring, control, surveillance and enforcement are taken into consideration, the choice between catch or effort RBM becomes more complex and less clear. The results will be case specific. Hybrid systems based on both catch and effort are increasingly employed to manage marine fisheries to capture the advantages of both approaches. In hybrid systems, catch or effort RBM dominates and controls on the other supplements. RBM using either catch or effort by itself addresses only the target species stock externality and not the remaining externalities associated with by‐catch and the ecosystem.

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Many small island states have developed economies that are strongly dependent on tuna fisheries. Consequently, they are vulnerable to the socio-economic effects of climate change and variability, processes that are known to impact tuna fisheries distribution and productivity. The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of climate oscillations on the tuna-dependent economy of Seychelles. Using a multiplier approach, the direct, indirect and induced economic effects of the tuna industry expenditure benefiting the Seychelles' economy declined in 1998 by 58, 26 and 35%, respectively (mean decline: 42%), a year of strong climate oscillation in the western Indian Ocean. Multivariate patterns in tuna purse-seine vessel expenditures in port were substantially modified by strong climate oscillations, particularly in 1998. A cointegration time-series model predicted that a 40% decline in tuna landings and transhipment in Port Victoria, a value commensurate with that observed in 1998, would result in a 34% loss for the local economy solely through reductions in cargo handling expenditures. Of several indices tested, the Indian Oscillation Index was best at predicting the probability of switching between low and high regimes of landings and transhipment, which translate into impacts for the economy. It is hypothesised that a late 2006/early 2007 climate oscillation was compounded by prior overfishing to produce a stronger impact on the fishery and economy of Seychelles. The effects of fishing and climate variability on tuna fisheries are complex and pose significant challenges for fisheries management and the economic development of countries in the Indian Ocean.

This paper extends the traditional hedonic price specification to take into account the unobserved heterogeneity of sellers, buyers and seller-buyer matches. The specification is estimated using econometric techniques for non-nested panel data models on a dataset of nearly 15 million transactions occurring in French wholesale fish markets over the 2002-2007 period. Results show that unobserved heterogeneity plays a significant role in price setting. For some species, its inclusion in price regressions changes the coefficients of quality-related fish characteristics. Fish characteristics are the main factor explaining price variations for many species, but time and buyer effects also play a significant role.

International audienceThis paper evaluates the degree of integration between the world market and the major European marketplaces of frozen and canned tuna through both vertical and horizontal price relationships. Spatial linkages are investigated horizontally in order to estimate the connection between the European market and the world-wide market on the primary stage of the value chain. One of the key results is the high level of market integration at the ex-vessel stage, and the price leadership of yellowfin tuna over skipjack tuna. The same approach is applied at the ex-factory level. Basically, the European market for final goods appears to be segmented between the Northern countries consuming low-priced canned skipjack tuna imported from Asia (mainly Thailand) and the Southern countries (Italy, Spain) processing and importing yellowfin-based products sold at higher prices. France appears to be an intermediate market where both products are consumed. The former market is found to be well integrated to the world market and can be considered to be competitive, but there is a suspicion of market power being exercised on the latter. Price relationships are therefore tested vertically between the price of frozen tuna paid by the canneries and the price of canned fish in both Italy and France. The two species show an opposite pattern in prices transmission along the value chain: price changes along the chain are far better transmitted for the "global" skipjack tuna than for the more "European" yellowfin tuna. The results are discussed, along with their implications for the fishing industry. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd