Bycatch Reduction Impacts on the Shrimp Harvesting and Consumer Sectors in the Gulf of Mexico

Abstract

The economic costs of the policy requiring bycatch reduction devices (BRD) on the shrimp harvesting sector and consumer sectors in the Gulf of Mexico were analyzed using simulation modeling. Three survival rates of shrimp that escape from the fisheye BRD (Penaeus duorarum P aztecus, and P setiferus) were used. As the survival rate of shrimp lost through the fisheye BRD decreased, gulfwide losses, in terms of changes in producer and consumer surplus from the base simulation, increased significantly. The most likely scenarios that represent the Gulf shrimp fishery are survival rates of 50% and 0%. Under 50% and 0% survival of shrimp that escape, the impact of BRDs in the Gulf of Mexico in terms of total economic losses to society ranges from $44.9 million to $65.7 million. The simulation shows that BRD policy has a negative impact on shrimp fishermen with 35-year present value rent ranging from US$11.5 million to $15.2 million.