The Impacts of Waiting Cooperative Management of a Transboundary Fish Stock Vulnerable to Climate Variability: the Case of Pacific Sardine

摘要

Challenges in the management of a transboundary fish stock, with time variant and asymmetric distribution of biomass caused by ocean climate variability, lie in waiting the implementation of cooperative management and the incurring of impact due to such waits. This is particularly true for Pacific sardine (Sardinops sagax), which has exhibited extreme decadal variability corresponding to warm and cold regime shifts of the California Current Ecosystem (CCE). Pacific sardine is exclusively fished by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico without any cooperative agreements in place. Our study applied a three-agent bioeconomic framework that incorporated environmental effects on sardine abundance and biomass distribution to estimate the impact of waiting cooperative management of this fishery. Our results showed that the impact of waiting cooperative management is significant for a country having a dominant share, while countries that have minor shares gain economic benefits from waiting cooperative management.