Links to Policy Activities

• Marine Fisheries

• Protection of other species / biodiversity

• Coastal zone management

• Emissions / CO2 Policies

Marine fisheries

• Many policy challenges

• Value of scientific information depends on effectiveness of governance institutions

Information can be a two-edged sword

• How can we create and maintain effective management institutions?

• How can we ensure that better science promotes better management?

Marine Fisheries: Issues and Trends

• Growing demand for fish

• Increasingly sophisticated technology/gear

• Race for fish fueled by common pool nature of resource & government subsidies Intense harvesting pressure – Economic and biological damage High levels of bycatch and discards Illegal, unregulated, unreported (IUU) fishing Excess capacityEcologically damaging practices

International Fisheries Law

• United Nations Law of Sea Convention (1982) 200 mile EEZs

• United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (in force: 2001)Strengthened management of straddling and high

seas fish stocks – fosters creation of Regional Fishery Management Organizations

• FAO Compliance Agreement (in force: 2003) Established flag-state responsibilities / vessels

fishing on the high seas

Growth of World Fisheries

• Growing demand and improved technology Rapid growth in marine harvests until late 1980s

• Recently - Explosive growth of aquaculture – mixed trends for capture fisheries

Uncertain Accounting: World Capture Fisheries

• Under-reporting of catch is widespread

• China’s socialist system rewarded over-reporting – Illusion of growing World catch.

• Chinese statistics so unreliable that FAO now reports them separately

Source: Marine Resources Assessment Group (MRAG), 2005. IUU Fishing on the High Seas: Impacts on Ecosystems and Future Science Needs.

Global fish landings – 1950-1999: estimated breakdown

Source: Pauly et al., 2002. Nature

Excess harvesting capacity

• Dissipates economic value of fisheries.

• Difficult to estimate - shifting technology & nationality

• National subsidies ≈ 25% catch value

• Capacity reduction programs since early 1990s

Depletion of highly valued / traditional stocks, followed by the targeting of other less valuable species.

In the Northwest Atlantic invertebrate catches have increased and those of demersal fish have declined.

Fishing down the Food Web: A recurring pattern

International Fishery Cooperation

• The “Tragedy of the Commons” occurs when valuable resources are left open to unfettered competition.

• The “tragedy” doesn’t always happen – Cooperation can prevent depletion and make all resource users better off

• Cooperation sometimes falls apart

• Research focus: Dynamics of competition /cooperation & roles of information & institutional design

Climate, Information and Cooperation

• Bargaining positions are not stable

They can shift dramatically in response to natural changes in stock productivity or migration path

• Uncertainty matters

Misperceptions of opportunities & consequences o

Disagreements over facts

Game models & shared fisheries

Stochastic Split-Stream Model:

• The value of good science may be squandered if fisheries are competitive – especially if the target species are long-lived, slow growing and less fecund

• In precisely those cases, better science greatly increases the payoffs from cooperation

• Provision of improved information should be closely linked to the design and operation of cooperative management institutions

Relevant Projects / Activities

Policy • RFMO, other international, and national efforts to develop

effective management regimes

Research / Academic• CLIOTOP Working Group 5 (Socioeconomic Impacts and

Management Strategies)• Other GLOBEC Programs• World Fish Center – focus on climate change impacts on

developing nation fisheries• IIFET (International Institute for Fisheries Economics and

Trade) – Rebuilding Fisheries in an Uncertain Environment

Focus areas• Evolution of harvesting efforts

• Development and functioning of international fishery management organizations.

Activities

• Multidisciplinary: “Workshop on Climate, Uncertainty, and Multilateral Management of Harvested Highly-Migratory Marine Fish Stocks.” Summer 2007