The North Pacific fisheries generate close to $2 billion dollars in first-wholesale revenue each year, yet there is no systematic accounting or analysis of the states or cities to where this money flows. In this project we are identifying the main fleets exploiting the North Pacific fisheries and summarizing the revenues earned by the location of residence and hailing port for fleet participants over several years. We hypothesize that the location of residence data for vessel owners is an indicator of where fishing profits are likely to be spent. The hailing port data may be representative of where the vessel obtains a significant portion of its supplies and, potentially, crew members. We are also attempting to identify spatial trends and structural breaks in the distribution of revenues in response to recent management actions. Finally, we hope to examine whether the revenue distribution has consolidated over time. We believe this information will be interesting to the public at large and fishery managers seeking more information on how fleet-level decisions map into the distribution of earnings to different cities and states.
By Ron Felthoven, Chris Anderson and Jenefer Meredith
Assessing the Economic Impacts of 2011 Steller Sea Lion Protective Measures in the Aleutian Islands
One of the primary challenges to fisheries management in Alaska continues to be protecting the endangered Western stock of Steller sea lions. For more than 20 years regulations have restricted fishing effort in the Aleutian Islands (AI), Bering Sea, and Gulf of Alaska. In 2011, additional measures were implemented that further restricted fishing in the AI because of concerns that fishing there is harming the Steller sea lion population. NOAA Fisheries is beginning a new research project that will analyze the costs of the recent 2011 measures implemented in the AI on fishery participants. As part of the analysis, the impact on three fleets will be considered: the Amendment 80 non-pollock multi-species trawl fishery, the non-trawl Pacific cod fishery, and the catcher vessel trawl and non-trawl fisheries. Because regulations have been sequentially implemented over most of the last two decades, the reference point is not the native state of the fishery, but rather a more recent period which will be determined at the start of this research in consultation with NMFS analysts.
