Supply regimes in fisheries

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Supply in fisheries is traditionally known for its backward bending nature, owing to externalities in production. Such a supply regime, however, exist only for pure open access fisheries. Since most fisheries worldwide are neither pure open access, nor optimally managed, rather between the extremes, the traditional understanding of supply regimes in fisheries needs modification. This paper identifies through a case study of the East Baltic cod fishery supply regimes in fisheries, taking alternative fisheries management schemes and mesh size limitations into account. An age-structured Beverton-Holt based bio-economic supply model with mesh sizes is developed. It is found that in the presence of realistic management schemes, the supply curves are close to vertical in the relevant range. Also, the supply curve under open access with mesh size limitations is almost vertical in the relevant range, owing to constant recruitment. The implications are that the effects on supply following from e.g. trade liberalisation and reductions of subsidies are small in several and probably most fisheries worldwide. Keywords: backward-bending supply, regulated open access, regulated restricted access, mesh size regulation, Beverton-Holt model.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMarine Policy
Volume30
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)596-603
Number of pages8
ISSN0308-597X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006

ID: 8025088