A Vessel Cost Sampling Model

摘要

The Social Sciences Branch (SSB) of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) uses economic data to estimate the economic impacts of fisheries regulatory actions. Since 1995, the Northeast Fisheries Observer Program has collected trip cost information from commercial fishing vessels on which observers have been deployed. However, the allocation of observer coverage to fisheries is largely determined by non-economic needs (e.g., regulatory compliance and monitoring, bycatch estimation, and assessment of protected species interactions). To obtain cost data from a much wide variety of fisheries, the SSB funds additional observer coverage to acquire economic data from under-represented fisheries. In this paper, we describe a mathematical programming model to allocate marginal observer coverage, in terms of observer sea days. We apply a simple logarithmic utility function to the fisheries of New England. The potential universe of observations is divided into strata based on vessel size, gear type, and state of landing. Certain a priori assumptions underlie the approach: Costs are assumed heterogeneous across strata until such time as statistical analysis supports the null hypothesis; The marginal utility of observations in a given cell is subject to diminishing returns; The utility of observations decays with age; The marginal utility of zero observations is positive and finite; The cost-effectiveness of data collection can be reduced by software that automates the process In addition: Data collection each year is limited by a budget; Current data collection takes into account the amount of past data for each cell and most data will be collected via other programs.