Understanding Fishermen Behaviour – Some Potential
Opportunities for Experimental Economics
Presentation to:
Fisheries Policy and Experimental Economics
Opportunities & Priorities
University of Alaska Anchorage
Workshop
Presented by:
Gordon Gislason
GSGislason & Associates Ltd.
PO Box 10321, Pacific Centre, 880-609 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V7Y 1G5
Email: gsg@gsg.bc.ca
12 July 2007
The Basic Premise
“Fishermen react really well to money incentives”
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Policy Issue #1
CATCH MONITORING & SUSTAINABILITY
Some Industry Comments
•
“how can you prove you are sustainable without catch monitoring?”
•
“ENGOs support fisheries with good catch monitoring”
•
“you need public approval to maintain access to a public resource”
•
“traceability is becoming a market requirement – but you can’t have traceability without catch
monitoring”
Some Key Dimensions of the Issue
1.
need reliable estimates of landings & discards
2.
catch monitoring enables allocation policies
3.
to be sustainable economically, you need to be sustainable environmentally
4.
rigorous catch monitoring provides a social licence to operate
5.
affordability & privacy issues re catch monitoring
2
Policy Issue #2
CO-MANAGEMENT & USER FEES
Some Industry Comments
•
“wasn’t there a Boston Tea Party once with the rallying cry – No Taxation Without Representation”
•
“it is difficult to justify fee collection as cost recovery, when the money just goes to general
revenue”
•
“there is no problem with user pay as long as the user gets a say as to what service he gets”
•
“many fishermen are not used to taking responsibility for their life – the union was their father,
the company their mother”
Some Key Dimensions of the Issue
1.
what are the “core” science activities of government?
2.
how much decision-making responsibility is government willing to share/devolve?
3.
cost recovery vs rent recovery fees
4.
taking money from users without giving them a say is not co-management
5.
property rights systems foster meaningful co-management
2
Policy Issue #3
FISH QUALITY
Some Industry Comments
•
“quality standards in the market place have risen because of farmed fish”
•
“it is not polite to say but we are in the road kill business – we should not be”
•
“you can increase the price of any fresh fish by offering the product over an extended season”
•
“there is little financial incentive to produce good quality fish – everyone gets the same price”
Some Key Dimensions of the Issue
1.
lack of grading/differential pricing of raw material
2.
some fish has vastly different values depending upon 1) how & where caught, 2) on-board
handling, 3) processing and 4) marketing
3.
industry revenue growth tied to quality improvements not quantity increases
4.
capture fisheries should be providing high quality, niche products
5.
quality improvements may require different fisheries management systems
2
Policy Issue #4
THE NEXT GENERATION OF FISHERMEN
Some Industry Comments
•
“the average age of salmon licence holders is pushing 60 years”
•
“giving licences to some rural communities is a waste – nobody knows how to fish”
•
“we used to hire from the neck down, now we hire from the neck up”
•
“its hard to get good crew members for salmon”
Some Key Dimensions of the Issue
1.
lack of career progression – hired crew to hired skipper to owner-operator
2.
HR issues increasingly important e.g., recruitment, training, retention
3.
high licence/quota purchase costs act as barrier to entry
4.
declining crew % shares
5.
a fishing job is one of many seasonal jobs to earn an adequate annual income
2
Conclusions
•
the challenge in fisheries policy is to converge interests of:
- industry
- the regulator
- the public
•
“incentives” are a powerful tool for modifying fishermen behaviour
•
incentives are crucial to:
- meeting sustainability criteria
- fostering co-management
- improving fish quality
- recruiting next generation of fishermen
•
experimental economics has important role in a wide range of fisheries policy applications
for:
- identifying appropriate incentives & their impacts
- analyzing “command & control” vs “incentive” policy options
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