Management Of Fishing Capacity Research Articles

Is China’s Fishing Capacity Management Sufficient? Quantitative Assessment of China’s Efforts toward Fishing Capacity Management and Proposals for Improvement

As the country with the world’s largest fishing capacity, China suffers from the depletion of living marine resources, mainly caused by overexploitation, the effects of which also distinctly influence global sustainable utilization of marine resources and maritime order. The country has implemented a series of measures to control its national fishing capacity, notably since the late 1980s, and strongly expressed its responsibility and commitment to sustainable resource utilization in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020). This study quantitatively assesses the effect of China’s fishing capacity management efforts by examining changes in the fishing capacity of marine capture fisheries by region from 1979 to 2019 in Chinese waters, based on window data envelopment analysis (DEA), and further proposes directions for policy adjustment. The results suggest that China’s coastal and offshore fisheries are still subject to overcapacity of approximately 20%, despite major corrective efforts invested in past decades. This implies that China needs to further improve its fishing capacity management and set clear objectives, as determined by the availability of resources and regional features. Global fisheries management’s focus is shifting from input to output control, but overcapacity still threatens the sustainable use of fisheries resources in China and poses obstacles to other systems.

Managing Fleet Capacity Effectively Under Second-Hand Market Redistribution

Fishing capacity management policies have been traditionally implemented at national level with national targets for capacity reduction. More recently, capacity management policies have increasingly targeted specific fisheries. French fisheries spatially vary along the French coastline and are associated to specific regions. Capacity management policies, however, ignore the capital mobility associated with second-hand vessel trade between regions. This is not an issue for national policies but could limit the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies. A gravity model and a random-effect Poisson regression model are used to analyze the determinants and spatial extent of the second-hand market in France. This study is based on panel data from the French Atlantic Ocean between 1992 and 2009. The trade flows between trading partners is found to increase with their sizes and to be spatially concentrated. Despite the low trade flows between regions, a net impact analysis shows that fishing capacity is redistributed by the second-hand market to regions on the Channel and Aquitaine from central regions. National capacity management policies (constructions/destructions) have induced a net decrease in regional fleet capacity with varying magnitude across regions. Unless there is a change of policy instruments or their scale of implementation, the operation of the second-hand market decreases the effectiveness of regional capacity management policies in regions on the Channel and Aquitaine.

Managing fishing capacity in tuna regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs): Development and state of the art

Overcapacity is a major threat to the sustainability of tuna resources. Diverse actions are being carried out by tuna RFMOs to counteract this problem. This paper reviews and analyses both the historical development of fishing capacity management in tuna RFMOs and their state of the art practices. Despite the fact, that thus far, management measures have not yielded the expected results for capacity reduction, they provide a good basis for improved management of capacity at regional and global levels. ► This article analyses the approaches developed by the tuna RFMOs to manage fishing capacity. ► The management actions have not effectively controlled fishing capacity expansion. ► Access rights, enforcement and aspirations for development are key issues in capacity management. ► Measures such as freezing, reducing or redistributing the fishing capacity are required. ► Joint RFMO initiatives play a key role in addressing the fishing capacity problem.

Fishing capacity management in Taiwan: Experiences and prospects

Abstract Taiwan has developed its fisheries since the 1950s and become one of the major fishing nations in the high seas. Facing overcapacity and strong criticism by related Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, Taiwan did not only formulate lots of regulations to limit fishing capacity, but also spent around US$350 million from 1991 to 2008 to scrap 30% capacity of large scale longline fishing vessels and 18% of coastal fishing vessels. This study provides the insight that efficient use of budget and communication with fisherman, and coping with comprehensive stock assessment, would be the key issues in establishing a successful fishing capacity management.

Fishing capacity management in China: Theoretic and practical perspectives

Abstract The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Committee on Fisheries (COFI) adopted an International Plan of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity, which calls for all member states to achieve efficient, equitable and transparent management of fishing capacity by 2005. Based on the theoretical review of fishing capacity management, this paper examines the major practices made by China's government in managing the fishing capacity of its marine capture fisheries. Finally, it categorizes the main practices and then analyses and evaluates their effects.

A qualitative appraisal of China’s efforts in fishing capacity management

This paper provides a critical review of some major efforts made by China to manage the fishing capacity of its marine capture fisheries. It begins by reviewing the key concepts and issues closely related to fishing capacity management. Following on this, a brief introduction to China’s marine capture fisheries is offered, especially the trends of its marine landings and marine fishing fleets and the status of fish stocks in waters under its jurisdiction. Next comes the main concern of the paper, i.e., some major actions recently initiated by China to deal with the overcapacity problem confronting it. The paper ends with conclusions and suggestions.