The economic effects of catch share management: the Rhode Island fluke sector pilot program.

摘要

In 2009, Rhode Island implemented a pilot catch share program around summer flounder, or fluke, a state-managed species that is jointly harvested with the Northeast Multispecies groundfish complex. A sector was given a fluke allocation to land when they wished, while the rest of the fleet was managed through sub-seasonal total harvest caps and daily trip limits. Sector members avoided fluke landings during seasonal fluke derbies, instead shifting landings to post-derby closures in the general fishery, when the price was higher. However, they also affected prices of species they targeted instead. We combine predictions of counterfactual 2009 daily landings by sector vessels with a panel model of trip-level ex-vessel prices for 25 products targeted by the groundfish fleet to project what revenues would have been in the absence of the sector program. We find the pilot program increased fleetwide revenues by over $800,000, including benefits of over $250,000 to non-sector vessels.