Many of the world’s fisheries are challenged by a combination of overcapacity over-harvesting habitat damage and poor economic returns. For the first time ever it appears the world’s total harvest of fish from wild stocks is in decline because of over-fishing. The challenge is such that over a decade ago the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations noted ‘… many conservatively-targeted quota management systems have failed even for proprietary resources of EEZs …’. In an attempt to address these difficulties managers are looking for innovative ways to address the ‘tragedy of the commons’ whereby individuals operating in their own self interest overexploit a common-pool resource which is open to all.
This book is about how to understand and how to analyse fisher behaviour from an economic perspective. Studies and analyses of aspects such as estimating harvest of target species and marketable by catch species predicting by catch of protected species assessing fishing capacity and the cost of reducing over-capacity predicting entry/exit into fisheries and determining the contribution of commercial fishing to local state and national economies help determine how best to manage the ethos of all those involved. The research presented in the book directly supports fisheries stewardship goal of maximising benefits to the nation while ensuring the long-term sustainability of all living marine resources.
