annotated bibliography of fisheries economics literature - Office of ...

The Technical Working Group on the Management of Fishing Capacity
reviewed the various issues related to measurement and monitoring; management
and reduction methods; broader policy and institutional considerations; as
well as specific high seas aspects. The Technical Working Group (TWG)
emphasized the timeliness of this meeting and stressed the crucial need for
countries and the international community at large to urgently take steps to
address and prevent overcapacity (overcapitalisation) as recommended by the
Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries which the FAO Conference adopted in
1995. The TWG produced a wide consensus on the need: to develop more
appropriate measurement methods and monitoring mechanisms, including fishing
vessel registry; to give far greater emphasis to fleet monitoring and the
assessment of fleet dynamics; to adopt policies which clearly specify access
conditions; to give a greater priority to management methods aiming at
adjusting rather than blocking the pervasive tendency for overfishing and
overinvestment resulting from open access conditions; to reassess and
strengthened management methods used and implementation procedure, in
recognition that the applicability of available management methods would
nevertheless remain situation specific; and to approach the reduction of
fishing capacity with care, avoiding spillover effects and carefully
controlling the induced effects of scrapping programmes. The TWG provided
guidance and made a number of recommendations to better address and tackle
these issues within national jurisdictions. The TWG also recognized that the
high seas may be confronted with an even greater overcapitalization problem
than EEZ fisheries due to the prevalence of rather open access conditions and
the fact that there are at present no internationally agreed measure to cause
states to control fishing capacity. It recommended that the 1995 UN Agreement
and the FAO Compliance Agreement be urgently ratified. The TWG further
suggested that complementary measures would be required, aiming in particular
at: improving monitoring mechanisms for high seas fleets; strengthening and
empowering regional fishery organizations; creating new organizations to
ensure full coverage of the resource concerned; controlling the disposal
( dumping ) of excess national capacity in general, and of older vessels to
developing countries in particular; and at addressing the growing importance
of flags of convenience. Finally, the TWG felt that much more research work
and institutional building efforts were still required at both national and
international levels to improve present capacities to properly address the
many issues pertaining to the effective control and reduction of fishing
capacity.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and
International Development Research Centre (1982). Fish ByCatch:
Bonus from the Sea, Report of a Technical Consultation on Shrimp
Bycatch Utilization held in Georgetown, Guyana, October 27-30,
1981. Ottawa Ont., IDRC, 163 pp.
The problem of postharvest loss derives from the carrying capacity of
the shrimp trawlers, reflecting design, size, operational system, and cost.
The term bycatch refers to all the fish and other organisms incidentally
harvested by the trawling operations. In the past, all the bycatch was
discarded into the sea and only the shrimp retained. This practice resulted
in high losses from the discards. Now, it has become increasingly common to
select and retain some marketable fish. Bycatch quantities are, therefore, no
longer the same as the discards in every area where shrimp trawling occurs.
Assessment is necessary for both the bycatch and the discards.
Foster, Kevin and Chris McCarron (1994). "Summary of Fishery
Regulations for Atlantic Tuna Fisheries." Office of Fisheries
Conservation and Management, National Marine Fisheries Service,
1335 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD.
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