Behavioral and bioeconomic considerations of catch share policies

After trying numerous indirect approaches to address the problem of overfishing more direct fishery management approaches are being given increased attention by fishery regulators.  Among these approaches are, ITQs (catch shares) that are being implemented in New England.  Advocates of catch shares argue that the policy will increase stock sizes and catch, decrease costs, reduce price variability and increase quality.  The presentation examines these conjectures within the context of biological model of the fishery and an economic model of fishing effort and related impacts (fleet, market, financing, profitability and beyond--local and regional economic impacts) are lightly studied.  The bioeconomic model uses available data to project how the policy may impact catch share values and how they accrue to various stakeholders.  Factors considered include existing effort, the structure for assessing value (likelihood of return in each time period), and how values from catch shares result in regional economic impacts.