Shorebased Processor Outcomes Under Catch Shares

Abstract

Fishery management measures often aim to regulate harvesting behavior but can have downstream effects on fish processors, output markets, and consumers. Empirical analysis of these impacts is generally limited due to data availability. In this article, we utilize census costs and earnings data to examine operational characteristics and economic outcomes for shorebased processors before and after implementation of the West Coast Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program. While the overall number of buyers of catch share species along the coast decreased and fish input prices generally increased, patterns in outcomes were different for processors with Pacific whiting operations compared to those that produce nonwhiting groundfish, including lengthened seasonal whiting operations but a decrease in the number of days receiving nonwhiting groundfish. These differences in outcomes illustrate the complexities involved in the management of multispecies fisheries with heterogeneous participants in both the harvest and post-harvest sectors. This review contributes to the fairly limited empirical work on the fish processing sector, which is an integral part of the seafood supply chain and important to the economic resilience of coastal fishing communities.