Can We Stabilize Fisheries’ Benefits from a Fluctuating Stock? A Bioeconomic Assessment of the Pacific Whiting Fishery

Abstract

Pacific whiting (Merluccius productus), a commercially valuable fish species in the Pacific coast groundfish fishery, experiences extreme variability in annual recruitment. This variability causes fluctuations in stock abundance and subsequent catch and economic benefits. This study develops a stochastic bioeconomic model of the Pacific whiting fishery in order to assess various fishing strategies based upon economic and biological criteria. The stochastic fisheries model relies on a hockey-stick recruitment function with wide variance, generating occasional extremely large recruitment. In response to stock variability, we examine linear harvest strategies which close the fishery when estimated biomass falls below a stipulated given minimum biomass level (Bmin), and set catch quotas as a fraction of the surplus of existing biomass above the minimum biomass level (By – Bmin). To simulate the variability of results from each strategy we performed 1,000 50-year simulations. The results are summarized as average and variance of annual harvest, biomass and 50-year Net Present Values (NPV) for the fishery. This study concludes that the harvest strategy with low minimum biomass (5% of unfished biomass) and low fraction (0.2) would be desirable for three reasons: (1) maximization of NPV, (2) stochastic dominance and (3) biomass conservation. (Click here for the paper)

Source: Ishimura, G., Huppert, D.D., and A. E. Punt. 2004. “Can we stabilize fisheries’ benefits from a fluctuating stock? A bioeconomic assessment of the Pacific Whiting fishery.” In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Biennial Conference of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics & Trade: What are Responsible Fisheries? July 20-30, 2004, Tokyo, Japan. Corvallis, OR: International Institute for Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET).

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