Marine Ecosystem Considerations and Second-Best Management

Abstract

We compare how the long-run distribution of fishing activities is affected in multispecies fisheries when facing different second-best control rules: (1) species-specific landing regulation, and (2) global input regulation. We show how this depends on the economic returns and on the type of ecological interaction considered. We highlight specifically that fishing effort does not necessarily increase on nontargeted species and decrease on targeted species, and that the characterization of second-best efficient instruments may differ drastically depending on the nature of the interaction.