Alaska's Sablefish Fishery after Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) Program Implementation: an International Economic Market Model

作者：Warpinski Stephanie; Herrmann Mark^*; Greenberg Joshua A; Criddle Keith R

来源：North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 2016, 36(4): 864-875.

DOI：10.1080/02755947.2016.1165766

Alaska is the world's principal supplier of Sablefish Anoplopoma fimbria, a buttery-flavored whitefish greatly prized in Japan. Sablefish are distributed from Baja California to western Japan, but the majority of commercial catches are from the Gulf of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. The volume and value of landings of this long-lived demersal fish are comparable to those of the well-known Pacific Halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis. As with Pacific Halibut, Alaska region catches of Sablefish are managed under an individual fishing quota (IFQ) program implemented in 1995. We present a simultaneous-equation market model for Sablefish and use it to examine the linkages between landings volume and exvessel prices and revenues, including the sensitivity of Alaska exvessel prices and revenues to changes in landings, the implementation of IFQs, and changes in the Japanese economy. The model simulations indicate that markets could absorb substantially more Sablefish than can be sustainably harvested from the current stock of Sablefish in the Alaska region. However, sluggishness in the Japanese economy has resulted in overall downward pressure on Alaska region Sablefish exvessel prices. The model simulations indicate that the implementation of IFQs in this fishery significantly increased exvessel revenues as a consequence of the longer seasons that resulted from the end to the "race for the fish." In addition, we find that implementation has helped buffer the fishery against revenue losses associated with reduced catch limits triggered by the decline of Sablefish biomass in the Alaska region.

• 出版日期2016