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Balancing the trade-off between economic efficiency and social objectives has been a challenge for natural resource managers under rights-based management. While the actual prioritization should be guided by social preferences, the mechanisms and consequences of the quota transfer system need to be well understood. We investigate the effects of the quota transfer scheme implemented in the Norwegian coastal cod fishery in 2004. This is a small-scale fishery that has traditionally been important for employment in the northern part of Norway. Using vessel-level quota registry data, we estimate the effect of quota trading on vessel exit using a difference-in-differences approach that exploits variation in implementation timing between regulatory groups. In addition, we describe the outcome of quota consolidation with descriptive statistics. Our results confirm that the quota transfer scheme accelerates the exit of vessels from the fishery by at least 5% points in the short run. The descriptive analysis reveals great heterogeneity in both the size and geographic location of exiting vessels, suggesting that the scheme has distributional impacts. While the policy change has the expected effects in the short run, our results suggest that the implications of consolidation last longer. This has implications for policymakers trying to balance economic efficiency and social objectives of rational fishery management.

Introduction -- Origins and meaning of IUU fishing -- Rationale for an IUU fishing interpretive lens -- Compliance and state responsibility -- IUU fishing as compliance mechanism -- IUU fishing and state accountability -- IUU fishing as flag state accountability paradigm -- Conclusion.

This paper demonstrates methods that may be combined to characterize otherwise undetectable spatial heterogeneity in stated preference willingness to pay (WTP) estimates that may occur at multiple geospatial scales. These include methods applicable to large-scale analysis with diffuse policy impacts and uncertainty regarding the appropriate scales over which spatial patterns should be evaluated. Illustrated methods include spatial interpolation and multiscale analysis of hot/cold spots using local indicators of spatial association. An application to threatened and endangered marine species illustrates the empirical findings that emerge. Findings include large-scale clustering of nonuse WTP estimates at multiple scales of analysis.

Purpose - Mangrove forests are one of the most bio-diverse and productive wetland environments on earth. However, these unique tropical forest environments that occupy coastal areas are among the most threatened habitats globally. These threats include logging, conversion of land for agriculture and mariculture and degradation due to pollution over the past 50 years. The large population of resilient mangroves occupying the Turneffe Atoll area in Belize faces growing anthropogenic threats such as permanent clearing of land for housing, infrastructural development and pollution and natural factors (climate change). Given the few formal studies done to evaluate mangrove resilience at Turneffe Atoll, the purpose of this study was to evaluate mangrove resilience and nursery functions in the Turneffe Atoll Marine Reserve (TAMR). Design/methodology/approach - Mangrove fish abundance and forest structure was assessed by means of a visual census and the point-centred quarter method (PCQM) for 11 sites that span across conservation and general use zones. Findings - This study found that the more resilient mangroves (lower vulnerability ranks, higher standing biomass and higher fish biomass and abundance) exist in general use zones and warrant the need for improved mangrove conservation measures for these areas by Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association (TASA). Research limitations/implications - Limitations of the methods for data collection included accessibility within mangrove forests stands when establishing PCQM, observer bias among data collectors, sites without surrounding mangroves were not captured to serve as a true control group and poor visibility underwater affected the estimation of fish species and size. The timeline for this research was only three months based on available funding, and no follow-up study was done to make a true comparison. Originality/value - The findings of this research have a guiding role in the formulation of conservation measures such as better waste management, a robust framework for mangrove management, a communication strategy to guide public awareness and long-term monitoring surveys.

This paper assesses the potential for rent generation in the North Sea herring fishery. The assessment distinguishes between rents and intra-marginal profits—the sum of which constitutes variable profits in the fishery. A bioeconomic model combining fish population dynamics and the economics of the fishery is constructed to allow the computation of these different components of profits. In order to assess the dynamics of both rents and intra-marginal profits, the model is computed under various assumptions with regard to price, costs, and discount rates. Potential total profits are measured at £88 to £89 million annually, of which rents make up about £87 million with intra-marginal profits measured in the order of only £2 million. The study further shows that, in this fishery, rent is dissipated mainly due to excess effort but also due to suboptimal stock size.

This paper analyses sustainability of bilateral harvesting agreements in transboundary fisheries. Harvesting countries obtain public and private assessments regarding their stock of fish, and the stock experiences ecological changes. In addition to biological uncertainty, countries may face strategic uncertainty. A country that receives negative assessments about the current level of fish stock, may become ‘pessimistic’ about the assessment of the other coastal state, and this can ignite ‘panic-based’ overfishing. The paper examines the likelihood of overfishing and suggests a unique prediction about the possibility of abiding by bilateral fishing agreements. Conditions under which the outcome of the asymmetric-information model reduces to the symmetric-information game are discussed, and optimal policy instruments for intergovernmental management of the stock are offered.

Stated preference surveys often provide ambiguous descriptions of ecological commodities, yielding welfare estimates that have unclear interpretations and cannot be linked to measurable outcomes. This paper proposes guidelines to promote ecological content validity in survey scenarios and defensible use of ecological information for welfare analysis. These guidelines are illustrated through an application to migratory fish restoration. Content validity is evaluated vis-à-vis norms for communication of ecological changes in the ecological literature. Findings suggest that less structured treatment of ecological commodities may lead to an omission of information that is relevant to respondents and essential for valid welfare estimation.

This paper evaluates industry-wide economic incentives arising from changes in product prices in an industry exploiting a common renewable resource (tropical tunas) that is regulated via output limits. Changes in prices alter economic incentives by affecting revenues, profits, conservation, and nonmarket public benefits. Economic incentives in industries exploiting common resources have been examined from multiple angles. However, industry level variation in market prices arising from changes in public regulation has not been explored. We analyse the impact on economic incentives due to changes in output limits and market prices through estimation of ex-vessel price and scale flexibilities for imported skipjack and yellowfin in Thailand’s cannery market. The unitary scale flexibility, estimated from the General Synthetic Inverse Demand Systems, indicates no loss in revenue and even potential profit increases resulting from lower harvest levels that could arise from lower catch limits. However, for a revenue neutral or positive outcome to be achieved, the three inter-governmental tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, which manage the majority of the yellowfin and skipjack tuna in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, would have to coordinate multilaterally to set the catch limits for both species.

We study under which conditions a ‘window of opportunity’ for a change from an overfishing situation, with high fishing effort, but low stocks and catches, towards sustainable fishery management arises. Studying the Eastern Baltic cod fishery we show that at very low stock sizes (as they prevailed in the early 2000s) all interest groups involved in the fishery unanimously prefer maximum-sustainable-yield management (as prescribed by the management plan in place since 2007) over the previous overfishing situation. With increasing stock sizes, the present value of fishermen surplus would be higher when switching back to overfishing again, while other interest groups maintain their preference for sustainable fishery management.

We study the strategic exploitation of an age-structured, common-property resource, where agents target different age classes. We present the first closed form solution for the optimal harvesting of an age-structured population, and we derive closed-form solutions for the Markov-perfect Nash equilibrium, thus extending the ‘second-generation fish war’ literature by studying a structured resource rather than a simple biomass setting. We derive conditions under which the different age classes are subject to overfishing in the non-cooperative setting, as harvest quantities are strictly higher than in the cooperative optimum, but also characterize conditions under which some age classes may be underfished.