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

Matthews, Geoffrey A. (1982). "Relative Abundance and Size
Distributions of Commercially Important Shrimp During the 1981
Texas Closure." Maine Fisheries Review, 44(9-10):5-15.
Relative abundances of commercial shrimp, Penaeus spp., and lengths of
brown shrimp, Penaeus aztecus, are determined for Texas shelf waters during
the 1981 Texas closure, 22 May-15 July. A total of 274 samples were collected
in water where bottom depths ranged from 4 to 45 fathoms in four statistical
subareas covering the Texas Gulf coast. Greatest abundances of Penaeus were
found between 10 and 20 fathoms in each subarea. Shrimp were more abundant in
the southern subareas (20 and 21) than in the northern ones (18 and 19).
Relative abundances during the 1981 closure were usually greater than those
calculated from the 1961-65 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries' and the 1975-80
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's historical shrimp collections for
similar months. Mean total lengths of brown shrimp in waters where bottom
depths were from 4 to 10 fathoms were close to 100 mm, those in 11-20 fathoms
were close to 115 mm, and those in 21-30 fathoms were close to 130 mm. When
mean total lengths of brown shrimp were compared among the three data sets,
means of the 1981 closure surpassed those of the two historical data sets
where bottom depths were from 4 to 10 fathoms during June. Closure mean
lengths between 11 and 20 fathoms were less than those from Bureau of
Commercial Fisheries data and were greater than those from Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department data. Closure mean lengths in 21-30 fathoms were smaller
than those from both agencies' data.
Matthews, Geoffrey A. (1992). "Brown Shrimp Harvest Prediction -
Western Gulf of Mexico." Abstract in Kenneth N. Baxter and
Elizabeth Scott-Denton (eds.), Proceedings of the Southeast
Fisheries Science Center Shrimp Resource Review, NOAA Technical
Memorandum, NMFS-SEFSC-299, August, 186 pp.
The prediction of brown shrimp harvest is based on the Baxter Bait
Shrimp Index that has provided accurate estimates of shrimp catch for the last
30 years, explaining 67% of the annual variation in landings off Texas. Other
methods have been tested, but have not been able to match the BBSI method in
predictive ability.
Matthiasson, Thorolfur (1996). Why Fishing Fleets Tend to be Too Big .
Marine Resource Economics, 11(3):173-179.
The aim of fisheries management is to avoid over investment in fleet
capacity and over exploitation of economically exploitable fish stocks. In
this paper, a model is developed where a (big) share of rents created by
control accrues to boat owners while costs are covered by the general public,
which also gets a (small) share of the rent. The distribution of rents is
governed by administrative rule which opens the possibility of profitable rent
seeking. Cost of control is assumed to increase as rent per boat increases.
Control outlays are assumed to be determined so as to maximize gains to the
general public. It is shown that the optimal size of the fishing fleet
exceeds the size that maximizes fishery rent. It is also shown that the
higher the share that accrues to the general pubic, the closer the optimal
fleet size is to the rent maximizing fleet size.
Matthiasson, Thorolfur (1997). Consequences of Local Government Involvement
in the Icelandic ITQ Market. Marine Resource Economics, 12(2):107-126.
This paper gives an account of the development of fishery regulation and
management in Iceland, including the development of cod stocks, and the
fishing fleet in Iceland since 1945. There was considerable experimentation
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