Fishermen Resistance to Exit Fisheries

Abstract

Excessive harvesting pressure is an important force behind the decline of East Africa's Lake Victoria fisheries. The question of entry-exit is, therefore, crucial. This paper uses micro-data collected from the Kenyan side of Lake Victoria to analyze this issue. Results indicate that fishermen are in their current enterprise because alternatives are lacking. In spite of the commons nature of these fisheries, over two-thirds of the fishermen would welcome more fishermen, as the positive externalities of this exceed the negative ones. Opportunity cost of exiting, fishing experience, and whether the skipper of a fishing unit is its owner or an employee, are the significant determinants of resistance to exit from these Kenyan fisheries. Exit inertia usually associated with imperfect capital malleability and attachment to fishing is lacking, or minimal, in these fisheries.