Objective:
The goal of this study is to determine the global economic contribution and impact of activities supported by ocean fish populations, now and in the future. The roughly two year project is expected to be completed by May 2010.

The Lenfest Ocean Futures Project focuses on questions of current fisheries management and how these decisions affect ecosystems and in turn feed back into the economy.  The final product will be a single and multi-player gaming environment based on the scientific software Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) that can be used by scientists and policy makers alike to understand the impact of different fisheries management regimes.

Recently the developers have released a teaser of what the gaming environment will look like.  While you may see a video of the project embeded below it’s highly recommended to visit the YouTube page and watch it in…

Objective
Raja Ampat, in Eastern Indonesia, boasts the highest coral reef biodiversity in the world, and is therefore an important area not only for fishing and tourism, but also for conservation. In an effort to understand this ecosystem, development of an ecosystem based management (EBM) framework was initiated by Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, and World Wildlife Fund. The economic component of this project was our particular focus. Specifically, our objective was to look at the economics of unregulated and illegal fishing in Raja Ampat. An unregulated anchovy fishery and the illegal use of dynamite and explosives in the region were studied.

Objectives:
This research will develop and apply methods for estimating the cost to the North Pacific groundfish fisheries of current SSL critical habitat closures by major fishery and gear group with detailed temporal and spatial scales relevant to management decisions.

Objectives:
1. To develop a Selective Breeding Program for the Bamfield Huu-Ay-Aht Community Abalone Project (BHCAP) including a multi-trait selection index;
2. To determine which traits are economically important and their relative importance so that they 3. can be weighed appropriately in the Selection Index;
To measure these traits on individually-tagged hatchery-bred animals;

Objectives:
The general objective of this research is to examine the profitability of salmon aquaculture operations by highlighting the economic impacts of disease problems on aquaculture producers and wild salmon fisheries. Salmon aquaculture in British Columbia (BC) will be used as a case study, and sea lice will be used as a representative disease. The specific objectives are:

1. To examine the profitability of salmon aquaculture operation under “normal” conditions;
2. To estimate the economic costs of disease to salmon farmers;
3. To examine if disease has economic impacts on wild salmon fisheries; if it does, then examine what the economic impacts will be;
4. To explore the profitability of salmon aquaculture operation when economic impacts of disease are internalized.

Major Research Questions:
1. How much better could the management of Fraser River sockeye have been, in terms of several different objectives, given what we now know about stock-recruitment dynamics?
2. Given uncertainty about the underlying biology of the system, what are the likely economic implications of different management approaches that might be implemented?

Objective:
1. Characterize and describe the ecological, social, and economic aspects of south Banggi’s artisanal reef fisheries;
2. Assess the sustainability of south Banggi’s reef fisheries;
3. Explore the fishery effects of potential management strategies, and identify a feasible strategy, or strategies, that will contribute to the long-term ecological and socio-economic sustainability of Banggi’s reef fisheries.

Project objectives

The specific objective of project LMR/CF/03/07 is to determine the optimal harvesting ratio between trawled and longlined hake in order to extract maximum socio-economic value from these resources, and at the same time ensure long-term sustainability of hake stocks in the BCLME.

Objective:
The primary goal of this project is to provide an estimate of the value of US marine ecosystems. The project will generate scientific information to assist society in evaluating the ecological, economic and social tradeoffs, and consequences under different marine ecosystem policy scenarios.