Module 1: Introduction to

Fisheries Management
Prepared by: Dante M. Mendoza
Introduction: Definitions
 Fisheries Science – a multidisciplinary study of fisheries,
which disciplines would include fisheries biology, marine
ecology, stock assessment, natural resource economics,
social sciences, fishing technology, oceanography,
statistics and computer modelling.
 Fishery – defined as the set composed of a particular stock
plus fishing activities related to its harvest, inclusive of
fishermen, vessels, gears and even associated facilities.
 Fisheries Management - the integrated process of
information gathering, analysis, planning, consultation,
decision-making, allocation of resources and formulation
and implementation, with enforcement as necessary, of
regulation or rules which govern fisheries activities in
order to ensure the continued productivity of the
resources and accomplishment of other fisheries
objectives (FAO, 1997).
Fisheries Management

 The most widely accepted standard for

what constitutes good management is the
FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible
Fisheries adopted by all FAO Member
States in 1995 (FAO, 1995)
 The six substantive articles of the Code
(Articles 6–12) outline the critical
features of responsible fisheries (which,
in the Code, are taken to include
aquaculture), encompassing all the
elements of the ecosystem approach.
 Effective fisheries management needs
both strategic and tactical planning and
implementation.
Fishery Manager
 The fishery manager:
 The executive head of the entity charged with the responsibility of general fisheries
management.
 The head of a division or section charged with managing a specific fishery.
 In modern, participative management systems, the ‘manager’ is often, in practice, a
team, working in close collaboration.
Some Working Principles for Fisheries
Management
 The fishing sector consists of a number of dynamic components, also
commonly interacting with other sectors through the ecosystem and
biological resources, the stakeholders and the market;
 Fish stocks and communities are finite and biological production
constrains the potential yield from a fishery;
 Biological production of a stock is a function of the size and structure
of the stock and of the ecological environment with which it interacts
and is influenced by natural and human-induced changes in this
environment;
 Human consumptive demands on fish resources are fundamentally in
conflict with the constraint of maintaining a suitably low risk to the
resource;
 In a multi-species fishery, which description encompasses almost all
fisheries, it is impossible to maximize or optimize the yield from all
species or stocks simultaneously
Goals of Fisheries Management

 Ensure sustainable productivity of commercially

exploited stocks;
 Minimize the impact of fishing on critically-
important habitats and associated species;
 Promote ecologically-sound, non-destructive and
cost-efficient fishing practices;
 Maximize economic and social benefits of the
fishery.
Some Working Principles for Fisheries
Management
 Uncertainty pervades fisheries management and hinders informed
decision-making; the greater the uncertainty, the more conservative
should be the approach (i.e. as uncertainty increases, realized yield as a
proportion of estimated maximum average yield should be decreased);
 The short-term dependency of society on a fishery will determine the
relative priority of the immediate social and/or economic goals in
relation to the longer-term goal of sustainable utilization;
 A sense of security of tenure and a long-term stake in the resource for
those (individuals, communities or groups) with access ought to be most
conducive to maintaining responsible fisheries; and
 Genuine participation in the management process by fully informed
stakeholders is consistent with the democratic principle, facilitates
identification of acceptable management systems and encourages
compliance with laws and regulations.
Objectives of Fisheries Management

 The most widely accepted fundamental purpose of fisheries management is

“to ensure the sustainable production over time from fish stocks, preferably
through regulatory and enhancement options that promote economic and
social well-being of the fishermen and industries that use the production”
(Hillborn & Walters, 1992).
 In the modern world of fisheries, management tries to balance multiple
objectives that span beyond biological concerns.
 More precisely, fisheries management objectives can be broken down into at
least the four categories:
 Biological and Conservation
 Economic
 Social
 Recreational
Biological Objectives
 To maintain the target species at or above the levels
necessary to ensure their continued productivity.
 By default the biological objective of fisheries management
is obtaining MSY, or in other words achieving biological yield
maximization.
 The important principle always holds: zero effort means zero
catch; too much effort leads to small or almost zero catch.
 Also, in theory there should be a point at which catch has a
maximum – at least on average – and theory implies that once
the curve reached the top, the MSY level has been found.
 For decades, finding the MSY and keeping fisheries at this
prescribed level of catch and effort has been the sole
objective and obsession of fisheries science.
Conservation Objectives

 To minimize the impacts of fishing on the physical environment and on non-target

(bycatch), associated and dependent species.
 The conservation of resources, as well as conservation of biological and genetic
diversity are also important biological objectives with an increasingly important
role in fisheries management.
 Explicit directives to avoid putting stocks of target and nontarget species at risk of
extinction, and to develop plans for their recovery in case they are already
endangered, play an important role in fisheries legislation in many parts of the
world.
 Even more recently, ecosystem-health objectives are beginning to take a very
important role in fisheries management.
 Several fishery management plans already incorporate ecosystem objectives and it
is just a matter of time before ecosystem-based objectives replace some of the
more traditional biological objectives such as obtaining single-species MSY levels.
Economic Objectives
 To maximize the net incomes of the participating fishers.
 In economic terms, to obtain the maximum amount of fish (MSY)
is not the main objective.
 Fisheries are an economic activity and thus should aim for
economic rent and more specifically for profit maximization;
that is the maximization of total revenue minus the total costs.
 Thus, the concept of maximum economic rent (MER) is an
economic analogue to MSY.
 MER level is defined as the point on the revenue curve (i.e. the
yield curve times the unit value of fish landed) where the
difference between the total costs of fishing (typically a straight
inclined line) and revenues is greatest.
 However, the point on the curve of MER will always be at an effort
level that is lower than MSY.
 It is clear from this that it is impossible to attain MSY and MER at
the same time and this is an example of a likely conflict between
multiple objectives in fisheries management
Social Objectives
 To maximize employment opportunities for those dependent on the fishery for
their livelihoods.
 Social objectives are concerned with employment and equity.
 Fisheries are not only about landing fish and making money, but also about
employment and making sure that those involved in the fishery make a living that
is adequate and sustainable.
 Fishing is the most important source of employment in many coastal communities and in
such situations, having a large number of not-so rich fishermen might be more desirable
than having a few rich ones.
 Also, it is often important to preserve community structure and traditional
lifestyles.
 Communities that have been fishing for a few hundred years and hold traditional fishing
rights, such as the case with many indigenous groups, must be taken into consideration
as part of management.
 From the social point of view, the total number of jobs related to the fishing
activity is often a standard indicator, as well as the distribution of income among
fishers and the maintenance of traditional lifestyles.
Recreational Objectives

 In some parts of the world, fish stocks have to be shared between commercial
and recreational fisheries.
 Although both sectors are pursuing fish, their objectives are often different.
 For recreational purposes, both catch and effort (number of successful fishing
trips) might be important objectives.
 The total number of fish available to be fished is usually more important to a
sport fishery than the total biomass of fish available, and in the specific case of
trophy fish (such as marlins, swordfish or tunas), the size of the fish will be of
utmost importance.
 In such a case it might be an objective for the fishery to have few large fish
rather than many small ones.
 The standard indicators for recreational fisheries include the estimated total
value of recreational effort (dollars per day times days fished), and the
number and size of the recreational catch.
Fishery Management Systems

 Comprises wide array of activities designed to

ensure the rational and responsible use of living
aquatic resources;
 Include:
 Governance arrangements (policy, legal instruments,
use rights, control systems, etc.)
 Scientific advice (stock assessment methods,
management scenario modelling, etc.)
 Compliance (surveillance and enforcement, voluntary
codes, incentive structures, etc.)
 Monitoring
Management Approaches
 Comprehensive rational planning
 Precautionary Approach
 Adaptive Management
Comprehensive Rational Planning

 A traditional approach to fishery management, which proceeds under the

belief that, through research, an understanding of the resource system can be
achieved that can lead to effective management and control.
 Assumes that management outcomes can be predicted with certainty and
that available knowledge provides an adequate basis for sound management.
 Suitable for conditions of low or no uncertainty about resource status etc.
 High risk of failing to achieve management goals in most fisheries, due to
many uncertainties about resource dynamics and the interaction with human
aspects of the system, including the effects of alternative management
options
Precautionary Approach

 An approach in which the absence of sufficient scientific information is not used to

justify postponing or failing to take management measures to conserve target
species, associated or dependent species, non-target species or their
environment.
 Involves the application of prudent foresight, taking account of the uncertainties in
fisheries systems and the need to take action with incomplete knowledge.
 Precautionary management is at the core of both the UN "Fish Stocks Agreement”
(in force and binding on signatories since 2001), and the FAO Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries (1995).
 Reduces risks according to level of uncertainty and potential danger.
 Encourages involvement of industry in providing good data by shifting the burden
of proof.
 May limit exploitation below maximum potential where uncertainty remains high.
 May limit opportunities to increase knowledge about the system if applied too
rigidly.
Adaptive Management
 Adaptive management is a management process involving step-wise evolution of a flexible
management system in response to feedback information actively collected to check or test
its performance (in biological, social and economic terms).
 Adaptive management involves: generating alternative hypotheses, assessing the value of
more information, developing models for future learning and hypotheses, formulating policy
options, building criteria to facilitate option comparisons and conducting option evaluation
(Hilborn and Walters, 1992).
 Adaptive management attempts to reduce uncertainties over time in a structured process of
“learning by doing”.
 Reduces uncertainty by experimentation and/or analysis of existing variation.
 Most useful in spatially structured waters (inland, coastal), and for less mobile stocks.
 Can be applied within a precautionary framework by making experiments in limited areas
and keeping other areas as “buffers”.
 Requires industry commitment to principle of experimentation which may increase
variability in catches.
 Harder to apply in large offshore fisheries with an indivisible unit stock.
 Need to make large adjustments to “treatments” to generate observable effects.
Passive Adaptive Management

 Passive adaptive management adopts the best fitting model in each year as
“true” for that year, and only updates management policy in future according
to new data that arise naturally.
 Passive adaptive management can make use of existing variation in the
resource system in order to provide an experiment.
 Learning may also be gained through temporal and spatial variation arising
from both changing resource assessments, and natural variation in the
resource system (Walters and Hilborn, 1978).
 This type of adaptive management has the greatest potential in resource
systems that have a high degree of natural variation.
 In less variable systems, it is possible to become stuck in a narrow range of
parameter space.
Active Adaptive Management

 Active adaptive management attempts to produce better information for the

long term management of the resource.
 It uses management actions to deliberately disturb the system in “probing”
experiments that are designed to enable scientists and other stakeholders to
learn more quickly about the system and its dynamics.
 The advantage of active adaptive management is that managers can use
management actions to test conflicting hypotheses relating to the resource
system (McLain and Lee, 1996).
 Management decisions may also take into consideration the need to minimize
short-term losses and prevent long-term overfishing – key concerns of industry
and managers.
Single Species Management

 Simplifies models to main fishery control parameters (e.g. effort, catch,

technical measures)
 Single species models focus on a smaller set of processes – population
dynamics and harvest dynamics, and data-collection programs have largely
been structured to address those interactions.
 The models are designed to produce quantified estimates of the probability of
stock collapse under different fishing pressures, while ecosystem models were
not designed with this intention.
 Ignores interactions with other species and the wider environment
 May lead to overly optimistic management advice
Multispecies and multigear
management
 “Technical interactions” between fishing gears exist wherever two or more gears
and/or vessels operate within the same space, or catch fish from the same stocks
of one or more species of fish.
 “Biological interactions” between fish species are essentially independent of the
fishery (although they may be affected by the results of increased mortality) and
include predator/prey relationships and competition for food, habitats or space.
 Extends focus to all main species in fishery
 At simple level, aims to limit bycatch, discarding etc
 Use aggregated biomass dynamic models, or analytical models with technical
interactions
 Analytical models with full biological interactions hard to apply
 Hard to optimize controls for all species simultaneously - need to accept some
tradeoffs
Ecosystem management
 The “Ecosystem Approach” aims to consider all significant interactions between species,
sectors and the wider environment.
 The ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAF) is an approach that strives to balance
diverse societal objectives, by taking into account the knowledge and uncertainties about
biotic, abiotic and human components of ecosystems and their interactions and applying an
integrated approach to fisheries within ecologically meaningful boundaries.
 The purpose of EAF is to plan, develop and manage fisheries in a manner that addresses the
multiple needs and desires of societies, without jeopardizing the options for future
generations to benefit from the full range of goods and services provided by marine
ecosystems (FAO, 2003).
 Seeks to maintain biological diversity, habitats and ecosystem functions
 Management options include the use of networks of MPAs, prevention of bycatches, discards
and gear damage etc
 Common sense measures can be applied to “tractable” ecosystem problems
 Food web and trophic level models not yet useful in providing implementable
 management advice
 Hard to distinguish relative effects of fishing and environmental factors on fish stocks, and
hence appropriate management responses.
The Role of MPAs
 A marine protected area (MPA) is any area of intertidal or subtidal terrain,
together with its overlying water and associated flora, fauna, historical and
cultural features, which has been reserved by law or other effective means to
protect part or all of the enclosed environment (Kelleher and Kenchington, 1992;
IUCN, 1994).
 MPAs should play an important role in ecosystem-based management, in habitat
protection from damaging fishing techniques, for seasonal protection of spawning
and nursery areas and to ensure sufficient refuges for species that are fi shed
throughout their depth and geographic ranges (Bohnsack, 2003).
 MPAs may be most successful at protecting and rebuilding the biomass of the more
sedentary species, that can then sustain the fishery outside the reserve by
exporting juveniles or adults.
 Although migratory species may not benefit much from the local reduction in
fishing mortality caused by an MPA, carefully placed MPAs could still help some of
these species by rebuilding the complexity of habitats that have been destroyed
by damaging gears such as trawling, or by decreasing the mortality of their
juveniles (Pauly et al., 2002).
Property Regimes
 Property refers both to the physical object to which various legal rights,
privileges, etc., are attached and to the legal interest (or aggregate of legal
relations) appertaining to such a physical object (Honoré, 1961).
 There are four distinct types of property regimes: private (Res privatae),
common (Res communis), State (Res publicae) and non-property regimes (Res
nullius, open access).
 Private property - a situation in which an individual or a corporation has the right to
exclude others and to regulate the use of the resource.
 Common property - a thing which belongs to a group of persons, may be used by every
member of the group, but cannot be appropriated by anyone.
 State property - exists when the rights to control access, use and regulation are vested
exclusively in governments.
 Non-property - A thing which does not belong to anybody and may be appropriated by
anybody.
Open Access

 Open access refers to the absence of any property rights and may be seen as
most equitable arrangement by some societies.
 A condition of a fishery in which anyone that wishes to fish may do so.
 The access to the resource is free to all because there is no ownership of the
resource.
 Cause of the “tragedy of the commons”
 Because of the open access status of many fishing grounds, too many fishers are
attracted in which negatively impacted the common resources due to the
depletion brought about by the uncontrolled level of extraction.
 To be avoided where possible, or supported by strong technical measures
ensuring sustainability even with high fishing mortality (F).
Common Property
 Common property resources - resources owned and managed collectively by a
community or a group within a community, owned and managed in common
for the benefit of the community or that particular group.
 A common property represents de facto a private property for the co-owners who
can exclude all other potential users from use and decision-making but cannot
exclude any of the members of the community.
 A common property resource is a ‘common’ for the insiders (which cannot be
excluded) while it is a ‘property’ for the outsiders that are excluded from its use.
 Common property regime - a system of established rights, duties, controls and
punishments for violations agreed by the user group to ensure equity and
avoid overexploitation of a common property resource.
Property Rights
 Property rights govern who can do what with respect to the resource system and have been
defined as “the capacity to call upon the collective to stand behind one’s claim to a benefit
stream” (Bromley, 1991).
 Property rights are important in natural resources management as they provide incentives for
management, provide authority and control over the resource system, and can reinforce
collective action.
 Property rights have been divided into two groups: use rights and control rights (Schlager &
Ostrom, 1992).
 Use rights can be further divided into: access rights and withdrawal rights.
 Access rights authorize entry into the fishery or into a specific fishing ground, which include
traditional systems for access control such as TURFs, and limited access controls.
 Withdrawal (harvest) rights typically involve the right to a specific amount of fishing effort
(e.g., to fish for a certain amount of time or with a certain amount of gear) or the right to
take a specific catch (quota or trip limit systems).
 Control rights include management rights that authorize the making of rules and imposition
of restrictions, exclusion rights, which allow the holder to determine who may use the
resource, and alienation rights that enable the holder to transfer rights to others, for
example by inheritance or through sale or lease.
 Control rights provide the underlying basis for fisheries co-management.
 Property rights can come from a number of sources including international treaties, statutory
legislation, religious practice, local custom, project regulations and user group rules.
Co-management
 Co-management has been defined as a partnership arrangement in which government, local
resource users (fishers), external agents (NGOs, academic and research organizations), and other
fisheries and coastal resource stakeholders (boat owners, fish traders, money lenders, tourism
establishments etc) share the responsibility and authority for decision making in the management of
a fishery (Berkes et al., 2001).
 Advantages:
 Shares roles and responsibilities for management and enforcement (particularly valuable where government
capacity is limited)
 Develops more effective local rules by combining local knowledge with the scientific and technical know-how of
government agencies
 Where users agree with the system adopted, illegal fishing and enforcement costs may be reduced
 Traditional community-based management systems may be supported by government, where they are compatible
with state goals, e.g. for sustainability and equity
 Most common in small scale fisheries, e.g. in coastal or inshore areas, subdivided and managed as “TURF’s”, but
increasingly recognized as valuable in large scale fisheries also
 As well as sharing management tasks, need to share decision making power and allocate use rights (e.g. in
TURFs), to strengthen incentives for user participation

 Disadvantages:
 Potentially high costs of developing workable arrangements
 Developing trust and respect among stakeholders with different perspectives, skills and knowledge requires good
social development and facilitation skills
 Not applicable in all situations (but conditions increasing chances of success well known)
 Can create transaction and other costs for those involved (as can command and control structures)
Indicators and Reference Points
 To monitor the progress of the fishery and to measure the performance of
management in achieving the objectives, managers need “indicators” and
“reference points”.
 An indicator is a signal of processes, inputs, outputs, effects, results, outcomes,
impacts, etc. that enable such phenomena to be judged or measured (Choudhury
and Jansen, 1999).
 It is a variable, pointer or index. Its fluctuations reveal the variations in key elements
of a system.
 Its position and trend in relation to reference points or values indicates the present
state and dynamics of the system components (FAO, 1999).
 The reference point or reference value can be defined as:
 A particular state (value) of a fishery indicator corresponding to a situation considered as
desirable (target reference point [TRP]), dangerous (threshold reference point [ThRP]) or
undesirable (limit reference point [LRP]).
 Target reference points (TRPs) corresponding to situations considered as desirable and to be achieved on
average.
 Limit reference points (LRPs) indicating situations that are undesirable and to be avoided at all costs.

 An estimated value derived from an agreed scientific procedure and/or model, which
corresponds to a specific state of the resource and of the fishery and that can be used as
a guide for fisheries management.
Key Fishery Indicators

 Catch, effort and CPUE;

 Stock size;
 Fishing mortality rate;
 Others (goal-based)
Catch, effort and CPUE
 Catch - refers to all species caught during a fishing operation.
 Effort - the amount of resources applied to catch fish in a single or multiple
operations.
 CPUE - the quantity of fish caught (in number or in weight) with one standard unit
of fishing effort.
 Example: number of fish taken per 1000 hooks per day or weight of fish, in tons, taken per hour
of trawling.
 CPUE is often considered an index of fish biomass (or abundance).
 CPUE may be used as a measure of economic efficiency of fi shing as well as an index of fish
abundance.
 Advantages/application:
 Use catch history to show phase of fishery development;
 If effort data also available, use CPUE as an approximate index of state of stock.
 Disadvantages:
 Catch history depends on both the fishing effort and the state of the stock
Stock Size
 Stock - the part of a fish population which is under consideration from the
point of view of actual or potential utilization (Ricker, 1975).
 The absolute size of the fish stock is the single most important indicator of its
status and its potential to provide future catches.
 Advantages/application:
 Estimate cohort strengths by age and year using VPA methods (enabling SRRs to be fitted);
 Biomass dynamic and depletion models also estimate overall stock size, but not separately
for each age class (so less useful for fitting SRR).

 Disadvantages:
 VPA methods have high data needs and are least accurate for most recent years;
 Most length-based VPA methods assume equilibrium conditions and do not estimate stock
size separately for each year (so less useful as indicators).
Fishing mortality rate
 Fishing mortality - a mathematical expression of the part of the total rate of
deaths of fish due to fishing; often expressed as a rate that indicates the
percentage of the population caught in a year.
 Fishing mortality rate - the instantaneous exponential rate at which fish are being
removed from the fish population by fishing.
 Methods for estimating F:
 The first main group of methods assume that the stock is in an equilibrium state, and estimate an
average F(equilibrium) for the year classes included in the data set;
 The second main group of methods estimate different values of F for each year and/or each age
or size class.
 Advantages/application:
 Age-based VPA estimates F separately for each year (but least accurate for recent years);
 Length-based “VPA with pseudocohorts” and “MULTIFAN-CL” methods estimate F for each year,
but less accurate than age-based VPA and only useful for fast growing species;
 Equilibrium methods useful for fisheries that are only assessed every few years.
 Disadvantages:
 Most length-based methods (and age-based catch curve) assume that the stock is in an
equilibrium state (i.e. estimate average F over the years included in the sample);
 Equilibrium methods may be biased by variations in recruitment strength between years
Other Indicators
 Ecological indicators may include catch rates and catch composition (sizes and
species), the state of critical habitats, and the fishing pressures in different areas.
 Economic indicators may include the profitability of different fleets, the value of
any fishing rights (e.g. ITQs) and the subsidies used in the fishery.
 Social indicators may include employment, the consumption of protein and the
maintenance of traditional cultures.
 Governance indicators may relate to management capacity, the extent of
compliance with fishing rules, and the degree of transparency and participation in
the management regime.
 Advantages:
 Needed to monitor achievement of agreed fishery goals;
 May be easier to understand than e.g. F and allow better communication with industry.
 Disadvantages:
 Full “Sustainable Development Reference Systems” (SDRS) may be very complex but very useful
in examining possible causes of fishery trends.
Technical Reference Points

 To implement fishery management it must be possible to convert conceptual

reference point into technical reference point.
 Reference points provide specific values to aim at (targets) or to avoid
(limits) for the indicators adopted for the fishery.
 Target reference points – indicates to a state of a fishing and/or resource which is
considered to be desirable and at which management action, whether during development
or stock rebuilding, should aim.
 Limit reference point – indicates a state of a fishery and/or a resource which is considered
to be undesirable and which management action should avoid.
Target Reference Points

 Maximum sustainable yield (MSY) criteria: Fmsy and 2/3 Fmsy

 Yield per recruit criteria (YPR): Fmax and F0.1
 TRPs based on the size of fish caught
 Reference points based on the natural mortality (M)
 Reference points based on the total mortality rate (Z)
 TRPs derived from recruitment considerations
 TRPs derived from economic considerations – the optimal fishing effort (Fmay)
Limit or Threshold Reference Points

 Fmsy as LRP
 LRPs derived from stock recruitment considerations
 Other biological LRPs
 LRPs derived from economic considerations
Management Strategy

 Management strategy is a strategy adopted by the management authority to

reach established management goals.
 In addition to the objectives, it includes choices regarding all or some of the
following: access rights and allocation of resources to stakeholders, controls
on inputs (e.g. fishing capacity, gear regulations), outputs (e.g. quotas,
minimum size at landing) and fishing operations (e.g. calendar, closed areas
and seasons).
Harvesting Strategies
 A harvest strategy is a rule that describes how harvest is intended to be controlled
by management in relation to the state of some indicator of stock status.
 For example, a harvest control rule can describe the various values of fishing
mortality which will be aimed at for various values of the stock abundance.
 It formalizes and summarizes a management strategy.
 It may simply state, for example, that harvesting will be restricted to only males
of the species (e.g. for crabs), or only those fish above a minimum size limit.
 It may also specify what level of catch will be taken depending on the current size
of the fish stock.
 Harvesting strategies fall into three main types:
 Constant harvest rate;
 Constant escapement or stock size; and
 Constant catch.
Advantages and Disadvantages of
Harvest Strategies
Harvest Strategy Advantages Disadvantages

Constant harvest rate • Constant effort provides • Catches will vary with stock
stability for industry abundance
• Gives high annual average • Higher monitoring costs if
catches numbers of days at sea also
• Lower monitoring costs if only restricted
number of vessels limited, not
catches
Constant escapement • Gives highest possible average • Catches may be zero in years
catches but high variability in when abundance is lower than
catch target escapement threshold
• High monitoring costs
Constant catch • Provides stability for industry • Fishery potential may be
for some reduction in potential underutilized in years of high
average catch stock abundance
• High monitoring costs for
estimating catches in real time
to enable fishery to be closed
when quota reached
Management Measures

 The measures designed to achieve particular management goals include

technical measures, input–output controls and socio-economic incentives.
 The management strategy is the sum of all the management measures (called
tactics by some) that are selected to achieve the biological, ecological,
economic and social objectives of the fishery.
Technical Measures
 Contain two categories of measures for regulating fisheries: prohibitions which are
used in case of high risk and regulated measures.
 Authorized uses are regulated through regulations, decrees, by laws and
administrative orders.
 Technical measures are usually designed to protect reproductive potential,
prevent growth overfishing, or prevent the use of destructive fishing gears.
 Usually permanent regulations on gear type or gear design, and closed areas and
closed seasons.
 Use of toxic substances, dynamite and other destructive methods will usually be
prohibited.
 Technical measures, as opposed to effort or catch quotas or property rights, are
often assumed (often wrongly) to have no distributional effect.
 Disadvantages:
 May not be enough to limit exploitation effectively on their own
 Usually combined with input/output controls
Input Controls
 Input control is a management measure used to control the type and/or amount of fishing
with the view to limit yields and fishing mortality.
 May be used to achieve constant fishing rate or escapement harvest strategies, e.g. combined
with a closed season
 Effort restrictions aim to limit fishing mortality (F) by controlling one or more of the
following factors:
 the total number of vessels in the fishery, e.g. by allocating limited access rights and
restricting the number of licenses issued;
 the effort allowed by each individual vessel, e.g. the number of gear units allowed,
 the number of trips that may be made each year, or the number of days at sea; and
 the power of individual vessels, e.g. the size or engine power of the vessels, or the types of
gear that may be used.
 Disadvantages:
 Harder to sub-divide total allowable effort between nations, and between different
fleets/gears within nations, due to variation in vessel types and designs
 Need to monitor increases in technology and catchability that may increase F without apparent
increase in effort.
 May be politically difficult to restrict effort due to short term impacts and lack of alternative
options for displaced fishers
Output Controls
 Output control is a management measure aimed at controlling the
characteristics of the catch and landings.
 This is achieved by (i) limiting catch or landings through total allowable catch
(TAC) and quotas; (ii) prohibiting the landing of protected species, certain
sizes, a given sex, or animals at a particular stage of the breeding cycle; (iii)
regulating discards and/or (iv) establishing limits for the daily bag and
possession.
 Should be effective at achieving intended harvest rate if enforcement good
and no discarding or high grading
 May be easily divided, e.g. between nations sharing a total quota
 Disadvantages:
 May cause overinvestment in technology and capacity, and “racing” to catch fish
before quota reached (less problem if allocated as individual or vessel quotas)
 High monitoring and enforcement costs (not suitable for small scale fisheries)
 Provides incentives for mis-reporting
Ecological Measures

 The multispecies and ecosystem scales of management recognize that the

fishery is only one part of the aquatic ecosystem that is required to deliver a
broad range of goals for society.
 Ecological measures are often based on technical measures applied to
ecological goals, e.g. to avoid bycatch or reduce gear damage to habitats.
 MPAs and reserves may serve both fisheries and ecosystem goals.
 Integrated management approaches especially important in inland fisheries.
 Disadvantages:
 May be complicated to develop and implement
 Can be hard to enforce
Socio-economic incentives

 Incentives - something which encourages a person to do something. In

economics, any factor (financial or non-financial) that provides a motive for a
particular course of action or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to
the alternatives.
 Depending on the different ways in which they motivate agents to take a
particular course of action, incentives may be classified as remunerative (or
financial), moral or coercive.
 These are being strongly advocated as an alternative to conventional
command-and-control measures.
 Perverse incentives such as subsidies that can promote overcapacity need to
be phased out and eliminated. Other subsidies used to reduce overcapacity or
create alternative job opportunities might be tolerated.
Thank
you!