Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) seeks to incorporate the full complexity of marine ecosystems into the design of fisheries management policies and regulations. This paper presents a model of a multiple-species, and spatially-temporally heterogeneous fishery that is managed under a tradable quota regulation. Past studies of fisheries management in this setting have, for purposes of simplification, resorted to (1) restrictive assumptions for multiple-species harvesting technologies, (2) myopic and ad hoc behavioral rules for the fishing sector, and (3) assumptions for regulatory control that do not exist in real world fisheries. We derive a rational expectations, ecological-economic equilibrium outcome for harvests, discards, and fishery rent under a costly but endogenous targeting technology and a real-world regulatory instrument. Our results inform crucial and previously unavailable mappings from ecological, economic, and regulatory fundamentals to outcomes of management interest. Ignoring these feedbacks in the design of regulations will vitiate EBFM goals.
Original Release Date: August 30, 2017
Latest Revision: August 6, 2018
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/quinn-weninger/35/