International Trade in Spiny Dogfish: A Network Analysis for the Fishery Management

The spiny dogfish is a shark of significant international commercial value and there is concern over its conservation status. The major demand for its meat is in the EU, where the species have been drastically over-fished. The US is one of the major exporters to this market, with a high demand for large adult females. The market demand led to over-exploitation of the US Atlantic stock, forcing the adoption of a Fishery Management Plan (FMP) in an attempt to rebuild stocks. New tools to study trade networks may be useful for fishery managers. We analyzed historical data of dogfish imports by EU’s countries using social network analysis. In investigating the effects associated with the introduction of the US-FMP, two trade networks were created and compared the structure of the networks pre-FMP and post-FMP. Results show that after the introduction of this regulation, a number of new countries emerged as new exporters to the EU to replace declines in US exports, while several European countries emerged as new significant importers. This paper discusses the value of network analysis in the study of the evolution of emerging markets as it relates to regulatory changes.