Productivity change under the vessel buyback program in Korean fisheries

Abstract

Korean fisheries are managed mainly by input controls, such as limited licenses, and technical measures such as gear restriction, closed areas, and mesh size regulation. Despite these efforts, stock biomass has declined in the waters of South Korea leading the government to implement a fish restocking plan as well as a vessel buyback program. There has been a debate over the buyback program, its effectiveness and whether it should be for offshore vessels or coastal vessels. To address these concerns, we used a Data Envelopment Analysis method and showed which fisheries are over- or underproductive. To investigate the effectiveness of the buyback program, data were collected for 18 fisheries (nine each of coastal and offshore fisheries) from 1992 to 2012. A distance function approach was used, because the data for this time period consisted of input (number of vessels and tonnage) and output (fish harvest) values, with no corresponding input prices. Since there is a dearth of cost data and questionable market price data in fisheries, the Malmquist index (MI) was calculated to study productivity of the fisheries. Results showed two coastal fishery sectors and one offshore fishery need more intensive management. The Korean government has introduced a fish stock rebuilding plan in parallel with the vessel buyback program. The MI is a useful tool to show how productivity has improved with the two management tools working together.