Specialist and Generalist: Roles for Coping with Variability

Smith, Courtland L.; McKelvey, Robert

doi:10.1577/1548-8659(1986)6<88:sag>2.0.co;2

Cited by 57 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Consequently it may be less efficient than more-specialized vessels creating a tradeoff between average profitability and risk reduction. Although the potential tradeoff between risk reduction through diversification and efficiency loss has been noted in the literature (18,29), it has not been documented and quantified empirically, and doing so would be an important extension of our research.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Extending crop insurance-like programs to commercial fisheries harvesters has been suggested (23)(24)(25)(26), but a feasibility study of a program for Bristol Bay Salmon in Alaska cast doubt on its viability. Although formal insurance programs do not exist, fishermen's fishing strategies may provide a means to reduce risk by diversifying their fishing activity across a variety of fisheries or areas (27)(28)(29)(30)(31). A growing literature suggests that fishermen or fishery managers should adopt portfolio approaches to manage species composition of catch to achieve the lowest variance in income for any level of expected return (2,(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Income diversification and risk for fishermen

Kasperski

Holland

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

214

169

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Catches and prices from many fisheries exhibit high interannual variability, leading to variability in the income derived by fishery participants. The economic risk posed by this may be mitigated in some cases if individuals participate in several different fisheries, particularly if revenues from those fisheries are uncorrelated or vary asynchronously. We construct indices of gross income diversification from fisheries at the level of individual vessels and find that the income of the current fleet of vessels on the US West Coast and in Alaska is less diverse than at any point in the past 30 y. We also find a dome-shaped relationship between the variability of individuals' income and income diversification, which implies that a small amount of diversification does not reduce income risk but that higher levels of diversification can substantially reduce the variability of income from fishing. Moving from a single fishery strategy to a 50-25-25 split in revenues reduces the expected coefficient of variation of gross revenues between 24% and 65% for the vessels included in this study. The increasing access restrictions in many marine fisheries through license reductions and moratoriums have the potential to limit fishermen's ability to diversify their income risk across multiple fisheries. Catch share programs often result in consolidation initially and may reduce diversification. However, catch share programs also make it feasible for fishermen to build a portfolio of harvest privileges and potentially reduce their income risk. Therefore, catch share programs create both threats and opportunities for fishermen wishing to maintain diversified fishing strategies.F ishing is a risky business. Not only do fishermen face the highest rate of work-related fatalities of any US industry, with a fatality rate more than 30 times higher than average (1), they face high financial risk as a result of high year-to-year variation in their income (2). In this article we focus on the latter form of risk. High annual variation in income is a problem that is common to a variety of occupations dependent on natural resources, and there has been extensive study of income risk-coping mechanisms, particularly for farmers in developing countries (3-10). Riskreduction strategies used in agriculture might also be effective in fisheries. Crop diversification is a common means of reducing risk in agriculture, taking advantage of asynchronous variation in yield-response and prices to minimize idiosyncratic risk (11-13). Another common strategy in agriculture, particularly in semiarid regions with high fine-scale variation in rainfall, is to farm a number of geographically separated plots to ensure some will be in areas with sufficient rainfall (6). McCloskey (14) argues that risk reduction was the motivation of English farmers for "scattering each man's holdings in dozens of small strips" which, although inefficient, was widely practiced. Farmers can also plant a combination of crops adapted to wet or dry conditions to mitigate the risk assoc...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Income diversification and risk for fishermen

Kasperski

Holland

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

214

169

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“…Hilborn & Ledbetter, 1979;Hilborn & Walters, 1987;Vignaux, 1996) e por uma perspectiva antropológica (e.g. McCay, 1978;Smith & McKelvey, 1986;Smith & Hanna, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionunclassified

Caracterização da frota pesqueira de Parintins, Itacoatiara e Manacapuru, Estado do Amazonas

Batista

2003

Acta Amaz.

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CARACTERIZAÇÃO DA FROTA PESQUEIRA DE PARINTINS, ITACOATIARA E MANACAPURU, ESTADO DO AMAZONAS.RESUMO -A frota pesqueira de Manacapuru, Itacoatiara e Parintins foi analisada em suas características físicas e comparada com a frota Manaus através de dados coletados diretamente nos portos de desembarque e de dados secundários obtidos junto à órgãos federais e a Federação de Pescadores. Foi encontrado que as canoas isoladas variaram de tamanho entre os centros analisados, sendo as maiores encontradas em Manacapuru e Itacoatiara. Os barcos de pesca de Parintins foram significativamente menores que os barcos de pesca de Manaus, Manacapuru e Itacoatiara. O motor Yanmar predominou em todos os municípios, havendo uma relação linear entre a potência deste motor e o tamanho do barco. Manacapuru apresenta barcos mais velhos, seguido da frota de Itacoatiara. As frotas de Parintins e Manaus foram as mais jovens, tendo esta última maior amplitude de idades. Foram encontrados entre 5-6 pescadores por barco de pesca e 2-3 por canoa isolada. A duração das pescarias efetuadas pelos barcos de pesca é crescente descendo o rio, mas não difere para as canoas isoladas entre os centros urbanos. O rendimento da pesca foi menor para os barcos de pesca de Parintins, sendo o rendimento por pescador dos barcos de pesca melhor que o das canoas no período de safra. A partir dos resultados concluiuse que há diferenciação nas características da frota que desembarca em Parintins (Médio Amazonas) em relação aquela desembarcando em Itacoatiara e Manacapuru e que a pesca efetuada com canoas isoladas deve ser tratada diferenciadamente daquela efetuada com barcos de pesca. Palavras-chave: pesca artesanal, frota pesqueira, Amazônia central Chacterization of the commercial fishing fleet from AmazonasStates, Brazil ABSTRACT -The physical characteristics of the Manacapuru, Itacoatiara and Parintins fishing fleets were analyzed and compared with the Manaus fleet, using data collected from the landing ports along with secondary data obtained from federal institutions and the Amazonas Association of Fishermen. It was found that the size of individual canoes varied according to the center analyzed, with the larger ones found in Manacapuru and Itacoatiara. The size of the Parintins fishing vessels was significantly smaller than those in Manaus, Manacapuru and Itacoatiara. Yanmar engines predominated in all municipal districts. There was a linear relationship between the engine power and size of the vessel. The oldest vessels were found in the Manacapuru fleet, followed by the fleet of Itacoatiara. The Parintins and Manaus fleets were the newest, although the latter had the greatest age range. Fishing boats tend usually to have 5 to 6 fishermen and individual canoes 2 to 3. While fishing vessels working down river make longer trips, no difference in trip length was found for individual canoes in the different municipalities analyzed. Parintins fishing boats produced less fish than those of Manacapuru and Itacoatiara. Yield per fisherman during the height of the f...

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“…For this reason, in the fishing literature [16,51,52] this has been considered a measure of related diversification. Some authors [53] classify fishermen between those that diversify (generalist) and those that do not (specialist). This is an alternative fishery which generally last for about 5-6 months per year.…”

Section: Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Involvement and Sustainable Family Business: Analysing Their Effects on Diversification Strategies

Herrero

2017

Sustainability

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Recent studies have noted that traditional agency theory and risk attitudes differ when firms are small and have a family character. In this work, we provide new insights with respect to the effect that the family role and the different types of risk exert on diversification strategies. We provide a different view on the effect that the number of generations and having a family manager exert on diversification attitudes and we analyse the concept of family involvement for small family firms and the moderating role it has in the relationship between the different types of risk and diversification decisions. By using a behavioural model analysis and a set of fishing firms to test our hypotheses, our results corroborate the importance of family variables on the behaviour of small family firms and how these firms avoid risk under certain stable conditions while take riskier decisions when sustainability and survivability is menaced by unstable environments. We not only provide theoretical reasons that help to the understanding of diversification decisions of small family firms but we also draw some specific conclusions that will help fishery managers to achieve more sustainable fisheries by a better understanding of fishers behaviours.

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Specialist and Generalist: Roles for Coping with Variability

Cited by 57 publications

References 22 publications

Income diversification and risk for fishermen

Income diversification and risk for fishermen

Caracterização da frota pesqueira de Parintins, Itacoatiara e Manacapuru, Estado do Amazonas

Family Involvement and Sustainable Family Business: Analysing Their Effects on Diversification Strategies

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