Abstract
Management reform has the potential to rebuild fisheries and increase long-term harvest and profitability. But timing is critical: delaying reform implementation significantly reduces the potential socio-economic and biological benefits of improved management. This study models the costs of delaying reform in terms of annual biomass, harvest, and profit for 28 Mexican fisheries, parameterized using novel, fishery-specific data. Three types of reforms are examined: 1) harvest policy, 2) elimination of illegal fishing, and 3) implementation of rights-based fisheries management. The harvest policies examined in this analysis are status quo (no reform), FMSY, and economically optimal fishing mortality. The results show that prompt management reforms lead to improved annual aggregate biomass, harvest, and profit over time. However, delaying reform results in substantial costs. Just a 5-year delay of the implementation of comprehensive reform leads to a 51 million USD loss to average annual profits. Without reform, stock status can continue to decline, and the recovery of harvests and profits are further delayed. Over a given time-horizon, delayed reforms can dramatically reduce the number of healthy stocks. The results demonstrate that delayed reform can significantly diminish potential benefits that could be secured through improved management; this highlights the importance of prompt timing considerations during policy reform.
Highlights
While analyses of fishery recovery have demonstrated the potential biological, economic, and social benefits of management reform, few studies incorporate the costs associated with the implementation and maintenance of these reforms
Using a recent dataset of the economic upside from fishery management reform at the country level [4], we find that the median increase in value per ton of landings that arises from fisheries that undergo management upgrades is about USD 1,515
We develop a simple model to estimate the incremental costs of managing fisheries using open access” (OA), catch controls (CC), and Catch share (CS) approaches in each country
Summary
While analyses of fishery recovery have demonstrated the potential biological, economic, and social benefits of management reform, few studies incorporate the costs associated with the implementation and maintenance of these reforms. Sustained overfishing leads to population decline, which results in a less productive fishery in terms of both harvest and profit. Management that effectively controls fishing effort can prevent fishery decline or recover depleted stocks, resulting in greater long-term harvest and profits. Available data suggest that the cost of fishery management is often substantial and that additional costs from major upgrades in management could be prohibitive in some countries. The theoretical implications of fishery management costs for optimal fisheries policies have been investigated by others.
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