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

The September version incorporates editorial comments based on a review of the
August version.
Griffin, Wade L. and L.L. Jones (1975). "Economic Impact of Commercial
Shrimp Landings on the Economy of Texas." Marine Fisheries
Review, 37(7):12-14.
This report focuses on the economic contribution that shrimp producers
make to Texas to evaluate the potential economic value of shrimp production.
Griffin, Wade L. and John P. Nichols (1976). "An Analysis of Increasing
Costs to Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Vessel Owners: 1971-75." Marine
Fisheries Review, 38(3):8-12.
This report is intended to provide current information on the economics
of owning and operating a shrimp vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. Lower shrimp
prices coupled with rapidly escalating prices for fuel and other input items
have brought about a cost-price squeeze that has put the vessel owners in a
struggle for economic survival. Cost and returns estimates are based on 1971
and 1973 data collected from shrimp vessel owners. More specifically, this
report includes: 1)Estimated break-even annual shrimp catches with various exvessel
shrimp prices for 1971, 1973, 1974, and 1975; and 2) Evaluation of
expected cost and returns in 1975.
Griffin, W.L. and Chris Oliver (1991). "Evaluation of the Economic
Impacts of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) on the Shrimp Production
Sector in the Gulf of Mexico." Draft report, MARFIN Project NO.
NA-87-WC-H-06139. Agricultural Economics Dept., Texas A&M
University, College Station, TX 77843-2124.
By accounting for the dynamics of the shrimp population, a more accurate
representation of the gains and losses from the implementation of TED
regulations was provided. Percent loss by region varied with the fishing
pressure of each region; the higher the fishing pressure the less the overall
loss to each region. Across all regions, an estimate by the NMFS of a 10%
loss in shrimp retention due to the use of TEDs translated only to an overall
5.3% loss in landings in the entire Gulf region. In economic terms, this
renders a 16.2 million dollar loss of rent to vessels and crew in the shrimp
fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico. Regional compliance ranged from 61 to
91% based on Coast Guard estimates, therefore, overall loss in rent was
reduced to 12.8 million dollars. However, the loss in rent to vessel owners
and crew who complied with the TED regulation was 15.7 million dollars, while
the gain in rent to non-complying owners and crew was 2.9 million dollars.
The overall loss to the Gulf of Mexico shrimp industry, based on the 1990
individual tow losses of 0.7%, was a decline in rent of 4.5 million dollars
most of which was due to the purchase of the TEDs. These short run results
indicate that nominal days fished in the long run must decrease for the
industry to move to a new equilibrium. This is true across all vessel classes
and regions, since they all incurred negative rents. Estimating the net
present value for this adjustment process, over time, is reserved for future
analysis.
Two problems with the analysis are the short run time scale employed and
the use of a homogeneous fleet assumption. Limiting the analysis to the
impacts next year does not allow the fleet size to adjust to increased costs
and reduced revenues caused by adoption of the TEDs in their harvesting
operations. A stock effect from reduced fleet size should cause the catch per
unit effort to increase and total catch to remain the same. The analysis uses
the assumption of a homogeneous fleet where total revenue equals total cost
even though three separate vessel size classes are employed in the analysis.
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