Groundfish Trawl Fishery Research Articles

The avoidance of unwanted catch and cooperation: the case of the British Columbia groundfish trawl fishery

AbstractThis paper focuses on a particularly successful avoidance of unwanted catch of protected, endangered, and threatened (PET) species in the form of ecologically important sponge and coral, to be found off Canada's Pacific coast. The fishery causing the unwanted catch—the British Columbia groundfish trawl fishery. A campaign to protect the sponge/coral led by environmental NGOs (ENGOs) resulted in the industry's access to the key California market being threatened. For reasons explained, the national resource manager's ability to take effective direct action had become severely compromised. The groundfish trawl fishing industry responded to the economic threat with a bottom up approach to the unwanted catch problem, by negotiating a habitat agreement with a consortium of ENGOs, with the blessing and full support of the national resource manager. The agreement, now in its tenth year of operation, has proved to be a remarkable success in avoidance of unwanted catch. The paper argues that the success rests fundamentally upon the fact that the fishers have been and are playing a stand alone stable cooperative game, which has led them in turn to play stable cooperative games with both the national resource manager and the ENGO consortium. The paper analyses the factors leading to the stand alone stable cooperative fisher game, doing so by necessity through the lens of game theory.

Gathering local ecological knowledge to augment scientific and management understanding of a living coastal resource: The case of Oregon’s nearshore groundfish trawl fishery

Globally, coastal nearshore regions are an intersecting point for human and biological productivity, often serving as hotspots for subsistence, commercial, and recreational fishing activities. Despite this, many nearshore areas remain poorly understood, monitored or managed. This case study examined the nearshore sector of Oregon’s groundfish trawl fishery, which exists in shallow estuarine and continental shelf habitats common along the West Coast of North America; areas that are important for early life history stages of many commercial and recreational fisheries. The West Coast groundfish fishery includes over 90 different species, 40 of which occur within Oregon’s nearshore (here defined as the portion of the shelf extending seaward to a water depth of 200 m). The very shallow portions of the Oregon Coast (the area of the shelf inshore of 55 m) have been subject to limited scientific survey monitoring, and much of the details of the ecology, health, and processes in these habitats remain poorly understood. The utilization of the nearshore region by the commercial groundfish trawl fleet is also minimally documented despite the fact that experiential knowledge (local ecological knowledge [LEK]; trawl logbooks, fish tickets, interviews) exists. This research explored the capacity of capturing LEK sources to inform and enhance understanding of the drivers of effort and the vitality of nearshore fishery resources. Our approach used statistical analysis and mapping of nearshore trawl effort from 1981 to 2017 and gathered semi-structured interviews of intergenerational fishermen to bolster data-poor areas. Insights provided by sampling strategies and historical to current knowledge of access to groundfish assemblages provide informed baselines for future management. Spatial mapping results revealed a decline in trawl effort on the Oregon continental shelf thought time. Logbook and interview data assessment illuminated market and ecological drivers of fishing behavior as well as a unique sector of the groundfish fleet in Oregon: the beach fleet, with unique market and socio-economic challenges. Findings indicate a mixed-methods approach can provide a more thorough assessment of long-term interest in Oregon’s nearshore groundfish fishery. Ensuring better understanding of coastal interfacing regions such as Oregon’s nearshore insights potential for better conservation and utilization of marine resources and improved monitoring in resource limited management contexts.

Using online data visualization and analysis to facilitate public involvement in management of catch share programs

This case study examines the experience of the interdisciplinary Measuring the Effects of Catch Shares (MECS) project, a five-year demonstration project designed to explore the opportunities and constraints for third-party acquisition, organization, and communication of government fisheries statistics in order to track the ecological, economic, social, and governance outcomes of catch share programs. Catch share programs, whereby fishery managers allocate to private entities percentages of the total amount of fish that can be caught in a year, have been used to manage some US fisheries since the 1990s. Given the high financial stakes of commercial fisheries and the wide-ranging impacts ascribed to these programs, they are among the most controversial and contentious tools of contemporary fisheries management. The goal of the MECS project was to create an interactive, web-based platform for conveying a set of neutral, scientific indicators based on the best available fisheries data that could be used by fishing industry participants, fishery managers, and other interested parties to supplement and inform their own understanding of catch share program effects. The MECS project focused on the effects of two US catch share programs: the Northeast Multispecies Sector Program implemented in 2010 in the Northeast groundfish fishery and the Shorebased IFQ Program implemented in 2011 in the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery. The MECS project encountered data access challenges but ultimately succeeded in developing a website that has been received by members of the private and public sector alike as a useful tool that brings together and communicates disparate information that is not otherwise readily accessible.

The Transition to Catch Shares Management in the West Coast Groundfish Trawl Fishery: changing Job Attitudes and Adjusting Fishing Participation Plans

Management of fisheries worldwide is increasingly shifting toward catch shares. The West Coast groundfish trawl fishery transitioned to catch shares management in 2011. We use a multi-year dataset from the Pacific Coast Groundfish Social Survey to explore how fishermen’s job attitudes have changed in relation to catch shares management, and the influence this may have on fishing participation decisions. Using generalized linear mixed models, we found that job satisfaction has not significantly changed, whereas job stability and pay satisfaction have improved. We found that job stability, among other demographic items, is related to fishermen’s participation plans in the groundfish fishery. The five-year period following catch shares implementation can be characterized by elevated levels of fishing participation change as fishermen cope with the uncertainty of a new program, and adjust to changes within the fishery—results which may relate to experiences of fishermen in other fisheries transitioning to catch shares.

Why are catches in mixed fisheries well below TAC?

In major mixed stock fisheries of the United States, the actual catch is well below the total allowable catch (TAC). In recent years, only 20–30% of the TAC is caught in the US West Coast non-whiting fishery, whereas 60–80% of the TAC is caught in the Gulf of Alaska groundfish trawl fishery. Possible explanations for the underutilization are (1) lack of infrastructure, (2) lack of market demand, and (3) low quota limits on some species restricting the ability to harvest other species. Using species by species data on catch, TAC and lease price for species under Individual Transferable Quotas, we evaluate the support for these hypotheses. The results suggest that rebuilding plans, under a strict timeline, ultimately created many of the choke species on the West Coast and reduced processing infrastructure, such that the fishery still struggles with low quota utilization even after stocks have been rebuilt. In comparison, the Gulf of Alaska has not had a history of rebuilding plans and generally has higher utilization. The results suggest that rebuilding plans intended to increase sustainable harvest have been successful at increasing abundance but have been unsuccessful at rebuilding the fishery.

Choice sets for spatial discrete choice models in data rich environments

Failure to properly specify an agent's choice set in discrete choice models will generate biased parameter estimates resulting in inaccurate behavioral predictions as well as biased estimates of policy relevant metrics. We propose a method of constructing choice sets by sampling from specific points in space to model agent behavior when choice alternatives are unknown to the researcher, potentially infinite, and differ according to spatial and temporal factors. Using Monte Carlo analysis we compare the performance of this point-based sampling method to the commonly used approach of spatially aggregating choice alternatives. We then apply these alternative approaches to modelling location choice in the Pacific groundfish trawl fishery which has a complex spatial choice structure. Both the Monte Carlo and application results provide considerable support for the efficacy of the point-based approaches.

Catch shares drive fleet consolidation and increased targeting but not spatial effort concentration nor changes in location choice in a multispecies trawl fishery

Catch share systems are generally expected to increase economic rents in fisheries by increasing harvest efficiency, reducing capital costs through consolidation, and increasing the value of landed catch. However, these benefits may have costs, as consolidation and the potential for associated change in spatial distribution in landings can hinder social objectives such as maintaining access for fishery-dependent communities and small owner-operators. Achievement of such fishery management objectives are determined by changes in fisher behavior, which may be complex and difficult to predict. Predicting fisher behavior is particularly challenging in multispecies fisheries, in which the mix of species is a determinant of where and when fishing effort and landings occur. We evaluate changes in overall fishing effort, species targeting, and determinants of fishing location choice in response to catch shares in the US West Coast Groundfish Trawl Fishery. We found reductions in total fishing effort, increased targeting of some species, and no evidence of spatial effort concentration. Key determinants of location choice (distance, expected revenue, and recently fished locations) were similar among time periods, but after catch shares there was more avoidance of areas that lacked recent fishing activity or associated information with which to develop expectations of catch and bycatch. Additionally, location choice remained constant with up to 100-fold financial penalties on bycatch species.

The utility of spatial model-based estimators of unobserved bycatch

Abstract Quantifying effects of fishing on non-targeted (bycatch) species is an important management and conservation issue. Bycatch estimates are typically calculated using data collected by on-board observers, but observer programmes are costly and therefore often only cover a small percentage of the fishery. The challenge is then to estimate bycatch for the unobserved fishing activity. The status quo for most fisheries is to assume the ratio of bycatch to effort is constant and multiply this ratio by the effort in the unobserved activity (ratio estimator). We used a dataset with 100% observer coverage, 35 440 hauls from the US west coast groundfish trawl fishery, to evaluate the ratio estimator against methods that utilize fine-scale spatial information: generalized additive models (GAMs) and random forests. Applied to 15 species representing a range of bycatch rates, including spatial locations improved model predictive ability, whereas including effort-associated covariates generally did not. Random forests performed best for all species (lower root mean square error), but were slightly biased (overpredicting total bycatch). Thus, the choice of bycatch estimation method involves a tradeoff between bias and precision, and which method is optimal may depend on the species bycatch rate and how the estimates are to be used.

History of the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery: Tracking socioeconomic characteristics across different management policies in a multispecies fishery

The Pacific groundfish fishery management plan was first approved in 1982, formalizing what would become one of the most economically important fisheries on the West Coast of the U.S. In 2015, the fishery as a whole generated approximately $170 million in income and supported almost 3,000 jobs. Since its inception, the fishery management plan has been amended more than 30 times, transforming a fishery characterized by high discards and overcapacity into one managed under a catch share program that was designed to reduce fishing capacity, help rebuild overfished stocks, and provide for a viable, profitable, and efficient fishery. This paper reviews historical management measures as well as changes in both the fishery resource and the operational characteristics of fishery participants, such as rebuilding stocks, reduced bycatch, seasonality of catch, diversification, and revenues. Observed changes vary across sector and target species, but economic data highlight, among other findings, that consolidation has occurred across shorebased sectors, the seasonality of landings has shifted for whiting sectors, and fleet-wide days at sea have decreased for the non-whiting groundfish fleet. Though these changes cannot be directly attributed to any single management measure, the transition to catch shares coincided with increasing economic benefits to many harvesters and communities in a fishery that was declared an economic disaster less than two decades ago. This review can serve as a resource for managers, stakeholders, and researchers involved in developing, implementing, and analyzing regulations in complex multispecies fisheries.

The impact of catch shares on multiregional fishery participation and effort: The case of west coast harvesters in the Alaska fisheries

Rationalization in fisheries has been shown to lead to the slowing of fishing activity, input and effort consolidation, cost savings, and new market and product development. The effects of rationalization on fishermen's behavior become more complex when one accounts for the spillover effects that catch share programs can create in other fisheries and regions. Recently available annual costs and earnings data allow us to quantify the average marginal effects of the U.S. West Coast Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program on fisheries in Alaska. Empirical results indicate that the primary drivers of harvest in the Alaska fisheries are vessel size and operating costs for catcher vessels that deliver to West Coast mothership processors and shoreside processing plants. Rationalization does not appear to have a statistically significant impact on whether and to what extent catcher vessels that are endorsed to fish in both regions actually fish in Alaska. The advent of catch shares on the West Coast has in effect harmonized fishery management across the two regions. Conditional on fishing in Alaska, the advent of catch shares in the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery has lengthened the number of days at sea in Alaska for the West Coast catcher vessels that participate in the Alaska fisheries. This result is in line with the fact that after rationalization, catcher vessels have increasingly harvested in one region rather than fishing in both regions.

Initial Economic Impacts of the U.S. Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Individual Fishing Quota Program

AbstractIn 2011, management of the limited‐entry groundfish trawl fishery on the Pacific coast switched from a system of vessel entry restrictions, gear restrictions, seasonal closures, and bimonthly catch limits to an individual fishing quota (IFQ) program. In addition to advancing a profitable and efficient groundfish fishery, the Pacific Fishery Management Council's objectives for the IFQ program included minimizing the adverse effects on fishing communities and promoting measurable economic and employment benefits. We developed counterfactual revenues and costs for the fleet and used an input–output model to estimate the change in income and employment for the West Coast as a whole and for 12 different port areas. Our results indicated that alternative assumptions regarding the distribution of quota payments substantially changed conclusions about the economic impacts of the IFQ program. Under an assumption that payments to lease quota were distributed to homeports of vessels reporting revenue from the lease or sale of quota, income in most port areas and across the West Coast increased. Alternatively, assuming that there were no quota payments, about half the port areas and the West Coast overall experienced an increase in income. Lastly, assuming that payments to lease quota were a leakage, income decreased in most port areas and across the West Coast. Regardless of the assumption on the distribution of lease payments, the employment in most port areas and throughout the West Coast has declined due to a direct reduction in the number of employee positions on participating vessels. Although increased income resulted in a boost to employment in some areas, it was usually not enough to completely offset the reduction in the number of vessel employees.Received July 25, 2016; accepted May 9, 2017Published online July 11, 2017

Can vessel buybacks pay off: An evaluation of an industry funded fishing vessel buyback

Fishing vessel and permit buyback programs have been implemented to reduce excess capacity and improve profitability in a number of fisheries around the world. These programs are generally publicly funded, but in a few cases they have been financed by loans to be paid back by the remaining fleet. In 2003, a buyback permanently removed 91 vessels and 239 fishing permits from the Pacific groundfish trawl fishery and associated corollary fisheries of Dungeness crab and pink shrimp. The buyback was financed with $10 million in public funding and a $36 million loan to be repaid over 30 years with fees on landings. In the same year, a control date was set for catch share program in the groundfish trawl fishery. When the catch share program was implemented in 2011, the permit owners that remained in the fishery after the buyback were allocated the quota shares that would otherwise have been issued to the permits bought back in 2003. Estimates of the annual profits generated by this quota are compared to the cost of servicing the buyback loan. The results provide evidence that a buyback program, when implemented in conjunction with catch shares, can enable a sustained increase in profitability for the remaining vessels sufficient to justify its cost. However, using landings taxes as the mechanism to repay the loan may result in a mismatch between those who benefit from and pay for the buyback.

Development of the Pacific Groundfish Trawl IFQ Market

AbstractIn-season transferability of quota plays an important role in multispecies individual fishing quota (IFQ) systems since fishermen often need to acquire quota to balance incidental catch. The optimal utilization of quotas is thus dependent on development of an efficient quota market, but markets in multispecies IFQ fisheries develop slowly and may fail to perform efficiently even after several years. In 2011 an IFQ system was implemented for the Pacific groundfish trawl fishery in the US. After four years, the quota market does not appear to be yielding efficient prices for many species or distributing quota efficiently. I explore the structure and performance of the QP market and discuss the impediments to market efficiency. Drawing from theory and experience in other multispecies IFQ systems, I discuss other quota distribution and catch-balancing mechanisms that can supplement and perhaps improve inefficient markets and enable higher quota utilization rates.

West Coast Communities and Catch Shares: The Early Years of Social Change

ABSTRACTThe Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Fishery transitioned to a catch shares program in January 2011. The Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Social Study was designed to measure associated social changes and impacts on individuals and communities. Selected survey and interview data from the baseline data collection in 2010 and the first supplemental data collection effort in 2012 are aggregated at the community level and analyzed for initial signs of social change.Communities are sorted into top-, mid-, and low-tier communities based on the percentage of quota share (QS) permit owners that live in each community. A higher number of QS permit owners in a place is expected to result in relatively greater benefits to those communities. Questions analyzed include percent of income from fishing, multiple jobs worked, job stability, job satisfaction, standard of living, and how individuals were personally affected. Significant results for TOP-tier communities include increases in working multiple jobs, which may be negative or positive depending on the respondent, and improvements in job satisfaction. LOW-tier communities indicate significant improvements in standard of living. MID-tier communities appear to be in the middle, with no significant changes. Interview data indicate variation between owners, where some can fish their allocations and others need to lease more to fish.

Evaluation of a sorting grid bycatch reduction device for the selective flatfish bottom trawl in the U.S. West Coast fishery

The U.S. West Coast limited entry groundfish trawl fishery is managed under an individual fishing quota program. For many fishermen targeting flatfishes in this fishery, catches of rockfishes (Sebastes spp.), sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria), and Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) can be a concern because quota is limited relative to flatfish quotas. Thus, approaches to minimize bycatch of limiting species are important to the economic viability of the fishery. In this study, we examined the size-selection characteristics of a flexible sorting grid bycatch reduction device (designed to retain flatfishes while reducing catches of rockfishes, sablefish, and Pacific halibut) using a recapture net. The mean codend retention of target flatfishes (five species evaluated) ranged from 68.1% to 92.3%. Combined, the mean flatfish retention was 85.6%. Codend catches of shelf rockfishes, slope rockfishes, sablefish, and Pacific halibut were reduced by 80.3%, 64.0%, 97.0%, and 90.3% by weight, respectively. Significant differences in selectivity parameters between flatfishes, rockfishes, sablefish, and Pacific halibut were observed. Over fishing grounds where fishermen need a more selective trawl to harvest flatfishes, the experimental gear tested could provide fishermen a technique to reduce catches of non-target species.

Multifactor productivity, environmental change, and regulatory impacts in the U.S. West Coast groundfish trawl fishery, 1994–2013

This paper provides estimates of multifactor productivity for vessels participating in the West Coast Limited Entry groundfish trawl fishery from 1994 to 2013. Impacts of regulatory change on productivity are examined and productivity dynamics are evaluated across spatial and behavioral dimensions. Results suggest four different periods of consistency: (i) a decline in productivity from 1994 to 2002, (ii) a sharp increase in productivity following a permit buyback in 2003, (iii) stagnant productivity from 2005 to 2010, and (iv) another increase in productivity following implementation of individual transferable quotas (“catch shares”). Important spatial differences in productivity are uncovered-vessels fishing south of 40°10' N latitude were generally less productive than those fishing north of the same line. Additionally, the productivity gap between north and south was enlarged following the policy changes (buyback in 2003 and catch shares in 2011). Productivity from 1994 to 2013 tended to be higher among vessels that were more diversified in terms of their total portfolio of commercial fishing revenue. However, productivity tended to be lower among vessels whose targeting strategies were more diversified within the groundfish fishery.

Compound Poisson‐gamma vs. delta‐gamma to handle zero‐inflated continuous data under a variable sampling volume

Summary Ecological data such as biomasses often present a high proportion of zeros with possible skewed positive values. The Delta‐Gamma (DG) approach, which models separately the presence–absence and the positive biomass, is commonly used in ecology. A less commonly known alternative is the compound Poisson‐gamma (CPG) approach, which essentially mimics the process of capturing clusters of biomass during a sampling event. Regardless of the approach, the effort involved in obtaining a sample (henceforth called the sampling volume, but could also include swept areas, sampling durations, etc.), which can potentially be quite variable between samples, needs to be taken into account when modelling the resulting sample biomass. This is achieved empirically for the DG approach (using a generalized linear model with sampling volume as a covariate), and theoretically for the CPG approach (by scaling a parameter of the model). In this study, the consequences of this disparity between approaches were explored first using theoretical arguments, then using simulations and finally by applying the approaches to catch data from a commercial groundfish trawl fishery. The simulation study results point out that the DG approach can lead to poor estimates when far from standard idealized sampling assumptions. On the contrary, the CPG approach is much more robust to variable sampling conditions, confirming theoretical predictions. These results were confirmed by the case study for which model performances were weaker for the DG. Given the results, care must be taken when choosing an approach for dealing with zero‐inflated continuous data. The DG approach, which is easily implemented using standard statistical softwares, works well when the sampling volume variability is small. However, better results were obtained with the CPG model when dealing with variable sampling volumes.

Overlap of North Pacific albatrosses with the U.S. west coast groundfish and shrimp fisheries

We used a combination of seabird data (both fishery-dependent and fishery-independent) and fishing-effort data to evaluate the relative fisheries risk of five west coast groundfish fisheries and one shrimp fishery to black-footed (Phoebastria nigripes), short-tailed (P. albatrus) and Laysan albatrosses (P. immutabilis). To assess risk, an overlap index was derived as the product of total fishing effort and at-sea survey density of black-footed albatross. This index was used as the primary tool to estimate overlap with the endangered, relatively rare short-tailed albatross, which show similar habitat utilization from satellite telemetry tracks. Telemetry data indicate Laysan albatross primarily occur offshore beyond observed fishing effort. Black-footed and short-tailed albatross-fishery overlap was highest at the shelf-break (201–1000m) north of 36° N. Overlap and reported albatross mortality indicate that the sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) longline and Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) catcher-processor fisheries pose the greatest risk to these species; the near-shore rockfish (Seabastes spp.) longline, pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani) trawl, California halibut (Paralichthys californicus) trawl, and non-hake groundfish trawl fisheries pose relatively little risk. Implementing proven seabird bycatch-reduction measures will likely minimize albatross mortality in the highest-risk fishery, sablefish longline.

Estimation of multi-output production functions in commercial fisheries

Measuring the productivity of vessels in a multi-species fishery can be problematic. Typical regression techniques are not capable of handling multiple outputs while Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) tends to ignore the stochastic nature of production. Applied economists have devoted considerable time to this problem and have developed several methods of dealing with the issue of multiple output technologies in commercial fisheries. Our paper contributes to this literature by providing another method for estimating production functions of vessels operating in multi-species fisheries. We utilize a two-stage model – with data from the West Coast Limited Entry Groundfish Trawl Fishery – using DEA to aggregate output in the first stage. This aggregate index is then used as the dependent variable in a regression framework, allowing for the estimation of the return to different inputs in fisheries production. This provides information that may be particularly important for fisheries managers.

Effort changes around a marine reserve: The case of the California Rockfish Conservation Area

Abstract This article is an analysis of observed changes in the level of fishing effort and the spatial distribution of fishing effort following implementation of a marine reserve off the California coast. The Rockfish Conservation Area (RCA) closes the area between depth contour based boundaries to commercial trawl fishing. In this analysis, commercial fishing vessels are grouped based on their level of fishing effort within the closed area prior to the closure in order to compare changes in effort levels between groups. The results suggest that the RCA may have had a small effect on the level of fishing effort in the California groundfish trawl fishery. Spatial distribution of fishing effort before and after implementation of the marine reserve is also compared. Some concentration of effort occurred along parts of the closed area boundaries. This pattern suggests the “fishing the line” behavior noted in the marine reserve literature, but other possible explanations exist including the effects of coincident changes in other regulations and changing bioeconomic conditions.