Occupational Safety and the Shift from Common to Individual Fishing Quotas in the Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

We investigate and measure how a shift from a regime of common property to one of private ownership of fishing rights affected the safety of commercial fishing activity. To deal with overfishing and stock depletion of red snapper and grouper-tilefish in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), various regulatory controls, most notably common quotas and seasonal closures, were introduced in the early 1990s. The resulting "fishing derbies" led to an increased number of accidents and fatalities. We show that the subsequently implemented individual fishing quota programs led to a sharp reduction in the number of fatalities, in large part because of lower pressure to make risky trip decisions, in particular under adverse weather conditions.

Moral hazard and selection bias in insurance markets: Evidence from commercial fisheries

“…Wind speed is a significant contributing factor to both the rate of fatal accidents and the severity of injuries in commercial fisheries. Studies of the Gulf of Mexico reef fish commercial fisheries, our focus here, find that a one‐meter‐per‐second increase in wind speed raises the rate of fatal accidents by 0.48 per 100,000 FTE (Marvasti & Dakhlia, 2017) and that high wind speeds also increase the probability of severe injuries (Marvasti, 2019). However, trips in the reef fish fishery are comparatively short and take place in coastal waters, generally allowing vessels to return to safe harbor in response to weather service warnings.…”

Gulf of Mexico Seafood Harvesters: Part 3. Potential Occupational Risk Reduction Measures

“…A study examined data in the GoM where a shift was made from the seasonal closures to IFQs for two reef fish, grouper and red snapper. Data from before and after the switch for these fisheries showed a 19% drop in the fatality rate after the change and associated this decrease with taking less risky trips during adverse weather conditions [58].…”

Adapting to water restrictions: Intensive versus extensive adaptation over time differentiated by water right seniority

“…Other studies examine the historical response to a new supply of water (Devoto et al, 2012; Duflo & Pande, 2007; Hornbeck & Keskin, 2014). Although our specific policy context is related to an irrigation restriction, it is analogous to other demand management policy settings, such as fishing quotas (Arnason, 2012; Jin et al, 2019; Marvasti & Dakhlia, 2017), limits on oil and gas extraction (Maniloff, 2019), and effluent limits imposed on polluting facilities (Earnhart, 2007; Gibson, 2019; Raff & Earnhart, 2020).…”