Whatever Happened to the Wreckfish Fishery? An Evaluation of the Oldest Finfish ITQ Program in the United States

Yandle, Tracy; Crosson, Scott

doi:10.1086/679974

Cited by 8 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(53 reference statements)

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“…No earlier study merged cost estimate with individual landings records, so our recent comparisons were limited to the mainland southeast. Those findings show USVI fisheries have profit margins higher than those of the Gulf shrimp industry (Liese 2011) but comparable to the margins of Florida's fishery for golden crab Chaceon fenneri (Crosson et al 2013) and the fishery for Wreckfish Polyprion americanus along the South Atlantic coast (Yandle and Crosson 2015). These reported and imputed cost estimates can be used by CFMC staff to assess the potential economic impact of regulatory changes in the future.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Integrating Commercial Fisheries Registration, Education, and Social Science in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Crosson

Hibbert

2017

N American J Fish Manag

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The collection of economic data on commercial fisheries without a formal dealer network often requires time and labor‐intensive field research. Previous fisheries social and economic research in the Caribbean has embraced stratified or cluster sampling techniques as an efficient alternative to seeking large random samples. We explore an alternative approach wherein fisheries education and research are incorporated into a registration process structured around small group interactions in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI). We find that this approach can raise response rates and save considerable effort, but the surveys themselves must be very brief. Received February 11, 2016; accepted October 28, 2016 Published online March 1, 2017

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Integrating Commercial Fisheries Registration, Education, and Social Science in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Crosson

Hibbert

2017

N American J Fish Manag

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“…These negative social effects may be present in the Gulf ITQ fisheries [48]. The older South Atlantic wreckfish ITQ may offer a less problematic alternative, shareholders can only lease quota to other shareholders and the fishery hence many of the same equity issues that may plague the Gulf [27].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This included the passage of various size limitations and then a new commercial license moratorium passed by the GFMC in 1996 and the SAFMC in 1997, limiting access to new fishers. The SAFMC started the first ITQ for finfish in the U.S. in 1993 for the wreckfish fishery, but has not passed another since [27].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the economic effects of different fishery management regimes in two otherwise similar fisheries

Liese

Crosson

2023

PLoS ONE

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In the southeast U.S., two very similar fisheries are managed by very different management regimes. In the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish fishery, all major species are managed by individual transferable quotas (ITQs). The neighboring S. Atlantic Snapper-Grouper fishery continues to be managed by traditional regulations such as vessel trip-limits and closed seasons. Using detailed landings and revenue data from logbooks together with trip-level and annual, vessel-level economic survey data, we develop financial statements for each fishery to estimate cost structures, profits, and resource rent. By comparing the two fisheries from an economic perspective, we illustrate the detrimental effects of the regulatory measures on the S. Atlantic Snapper-Grouper fishery and quantify the difference in economic outcomes, including estimating the difference in resource rent. We find that the choice of fishery management regime shows up as a regime shift in the productivity and profitability of the fisheries. The ITQ fishery generates substantially more resource rents than the traditionally managed fishery; the difference is a large fraction of revenue (~30%). In the S. Atlantic Snapper-Grouper fishery, the potential value of the resource has almost completely dissipated via lower ex-vessel prices and hundreds of thousands of gallons of wasted fuel. Excess use of labor is a lesser issue.

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“…Some species of fish naturally have large inter‐annual variability in biomass, making them more vulnerable to overharvest (Trochta et al ., 2020). Major changes in management can alter fishing incentives or profitability, resulting in fishers leaving the fishery or shifting effort to other species (Yandle & Crosson, 2015). Fisheries can also be shut down by managers when targeted stocks are healthy if there are serious issues with by‐catch ( e.g ., the shallow‐set longline swordfish fishery in Hawaii faced an emergency closure due to sea turtle by‐catch, FR Doc 2018‐10096).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“A prized Pacific shark”: the rise and fall (and rise again…?) of the world's first ecolabel certified sustainable shark fishery

Shiffman

Bangley

Macdonald

2023

Journal of Fish Biology

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There is intense public interest surrounding the conservation and management of sharks, including a debate over whether sustainable shark fisheries are possible or fishing bans on sharks are needed to conserve these animals. An important but rarely discussed data point in discussions of global shark fisheries is the case of British Columbia's fishery for Pacific spiny dogfish, Squalus suckleyi, which in 2011 became the first Marine Stewardship Council−certified shark fishery anywhere in the world. A few years later, despite reportedly healthy local stocks and thriving global markets for this shark, the fishery voluntarily withdrew its MSC certification, and in recent years more than 95% of the quota for Pacific spiny dogfish has been left in the water. This study provides insight into what happened to this fishery through a review of grey literature and a series of stakeholder interviews with British Columbian fishermen, fish processors, managers and environmentalists. It is a rare case study of a fishery that largely ceased operations without a clear mechanistic explanation like a stock collapse, a government mandate to limit fishing or a clear shift in market demand. This fishery appears to have been affected by the combination of several factors, including a temporary reduction in biomass due to oceanographic effects, potential blowback from overly broad environmental messaging that did not distinguish between sustainable and unsustainable shark fisheries, management changes resulting in altered fishing incentives and changes to processing capacity associated with consolidating the fishing industry into ownership by relatively few large companies.

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Whatever Happened to the Wreckfish Fishery? An Evaluation of the Oldest Finfish ITQ Program in the United States

Cited by 8 publications

References 49 publications

Integrating Commercial Fisheries Registration, Education, and Social Science in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Integrating Commercial Fisheries Registration, Education, and Social Science in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Quantifying the economic effects of different fishery management regimes in two otherwise similar fisheries

“A prized Pacific shark”: the rise and fall (and rise again…?) of the world's first ecolabel certified sustainable shark fishery

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