The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status Report - Earth Economics

The Spot Prawn Fishery: A Status Report
sporadic, with low harvests. This is probably due
to the fact that spot prawns historically were a
supplemental source of income for salmon and
halibut fishers (Koeneman and Botelho 2000c).
Limited data from the 1960s suggest an annual
harvest of 7,938 kilograms (17,464 lbs.) with a
record catch of 17,690 kilograms (375,219 lbs.).
Management was “passive” and markets existed
for whole, fresh product or fresh tails.
The spot prawn fishery became increasingly important
to the fishing industry in the 1980s, with a
resulting increase in both effort and landings.
Average annual landings peaked at 170,554 kilograms
(375,219 lbs.), and in the 1988–89 season
130 permits were fished. In Prince William Sound
the number of vessels participating in the fishery
expanded ninefold between 1978 and 1987, with
catches peaking in 1986 and then dropping precipitously,
in part due to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The fishery in Prince William Sound was closed
by emergency order in 1990 due to low stock
abundance. Experimental fishing in late 1991
indicated “severely depressed stocks”; the fishery
was closed in 1992 and remains closed today
(Orensanz et al. 1998).
Southeastern Alaska’s spot prawn catches were
relatively small and the pace of fishing slow until
the 1996–97 fishing season. Management reflected
the nature of the fishery at that time. It was primarily
“passive,” restricting only the number of pots
fished and the mesh size used. Little funding or
need for “active” management existed. The combination
of growth in fishing effort, changing market
conditions, and technological improvements drove
commercial activity farther offshore or into other
fishing areas. At this point, it became clear to management
that a more structured management system
was needed.
The Spot Prawn Pot Fishery
The spot prawn fishery grew rapidly in the 1990s,
when up to 248 permits were fished and catches
peaked at 356,076 kilograms (783,367 lbs.). Extensive
regulations were established at this time. Total
season harvest from all districts was restricted at
371,952 kilograms (818,294 lbs.). Mesh-size limits
were set in order to allow the escape of prawns
that were smaller than 30 mm (1.18 in.) in carapace
length. The fishing season was restrained in
order to prevent fishing during the egg-hatching
period (varies geographically, but typically falls
between late February and mid-May) and during
the summer, when prawns molt and their shells
are soft. In 1997, a fishing season of October 1 to
February 28 was implemented.
In late 1994 the first catcher-processor 4 came
into the fishery, and in the 1995–96 season five
floating-processors 5 and additional catcherprocessors
participated. Pot catch efficiency and
the pace of the fishing greatly increased at this
time. There was a shift from “tailed” to unsorted,
whole product resulting in a moderate increase
in value. The change in preferred product was significant
in that it allowed fishers to spend less time
sorting and processing prawns, and more time
pulling pots or processing frozen-at-sea (FAS)
product. The spot prawn fishery then became
a major source of income for many fishers.
Overcapitalization concerns led to discussions
about the development and implementation of a
limited-entry program to control effort and capacity.
The limited-entry program was announced in
late 1995 and established in 1996. Participation
was restricted to 332 permits, the first of which
were issued in February 1998. The announcement
of this program led to speculative fishing behavior,
and the actual number of permits fished peaked at
353 in 1995. As a result, the ability of the program
to actually control fishing effort was directly affected.
To date, 309 permits have been issued: 155 transferable,
154 non-transferable. For the 2000–01 fishing
season, 168 permits to fish were registered.
Guideline Harvest Levels 6 (GHLs) were instituted
in 1997 for southeastern Alaska’s fishing districts.
The GHLs were based on historical catches from
the 1990–91 to 1994–95 fishing seasons. Due to the
fact that GHLs are based on historical catch records,
managers believe that they may not relate to such
biological parameters as spawner abundance or
recruitment strength. This is especially the case in
southeastern Alaska, where the GHLs are based on
only five years of data from a fishery that continues
to exhibit increases in fishing effort and efficiency.
Similarly, catch-per-unit-effort data may not
reflect the fishery’s actual biomass. Improvements
__________________________________________________________
4 Catcher-processors are defined in Alaska Commercial Fishing
Regulations (2000–2002) as “a vessel from which shrimp are caught and
processed on board that vessel and from which no shrimp caught on
other vessels was purchased or processed” (p. 84).
5 A floating-processor is defined by the Alaska Commercial Fishing
Regulations (2000–2002) as “a vessel that purchases and processes
shrimp delivered to it by other vessels” (p. 85).
6 The Alaska Commercial Fishing Regulations (2000–2002) define
Guideline Harvest Levels as the “preseason estimated level of allowable
fish harvest which will not jeopardize the sustained yield of the
fish stocks” (p. 63).
8