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Global Ocean Economics Project

Andrew Dyck — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:44:02 +0000

Investigators

Dr. Ussif Rashid Sumaila	Andrés Cisneros
Andrew J. Dyck	Liesbeth van der Meer
Lydia Teh	Vicky Lam
Wilf Swartz

Collaborators

Sea Around Us Project

Research project description

Background

Activities dependent on healthy marine fish populations make significant contributions to the global, regional and national economies of countries of the world. This includes extractive uses such as commercial and recreational fishing, as well as non-extractive uses such as tourism. The ocean fisheries economy also includes related activities such as the seafood processing, shipping, marketing, and retail sectors. And it also includes public sector activities such as fisheries management. In addition to direct economic values, the oceans also provide a number of indirect or non-market values such as ocean processes that influence climate and biodiversity, and bequest and existence values.

Often, fisheries managers feel pressure to sacrifice the long term health of marine fish resources in favor of short term economic needs of the fishing industry. The Global Ocean Economics Project will determine the global economic contribution of activities supported by healthy fish populations, now and in the future. Gaining a better understanding of the value to the global economy of healthy marine fish populations may provide a broader economic perspective for fisheries managers.

As a first step to initiate the Global Ocean Economics Project, Rashid Sumaila will convene a meeting of economic and fisheries experts to develop a research strategy for the Project. The tasks for this meeting include (but may not be limited to):

Identifying ocean fisheries activities to be covered, the most obvious being: (a) capture fisheries, (b) ocean fish hatcheries and aquaculture, (c) seafood processing, (d) boat/ship building and repairs, (e) tourism/recreational fisheries, (f) marine manufacturing and services, e.g., products aiding search and rescue of fish and fishers, (g) marine research, and (h) contributions from public services, e.g., fisheries management;
Identifying the regions and major countries where this analysis should focus on, in addition to the global level analysis;
Discuss relevant methodologies for the planned research;
Developing a plan for collecting, compiling and analyzing the necessary data to accomplish the research goals;
Breaking the research and analysis into tasks to be executed by the UBC team;
Specifying the role of an Advisory Panel for the project.

Project Duration

Two years

Funding source
Pew Charitable Trusts

Documentation
In December of 2007 we convened a planning meeting in Vancouver to develop a research strategy for the project.

Based on the discussion during the planning meeting we prepared a brief outline for the project. (PDF 81KB)

Preliminary results (working papers)

Preliminary results from the first stage of the project have been released as working papers on the UBC Fisheries Centre website. The first stage of the project involves four papers which will be part of a special issue in the Journal of Bioeconomics to be published sometime in 2010. Following is a list of the working papers available for download.

Global patterns of potential catch and value losses due to overfishing (PDF 420 Kb)
A global valuation of ecosystem-based marine recreation (PDF 821 Kb)
Contribution of ocean fish populations to the world economy (PDF 182 Kb)
A bottom-up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies

Resources for contributors
The Global Ocean Economics Project is one of large scope and the data requirements are high. We depend greatly on contributions from those working in fisheries around the world to provide us with high quality information.

If you have any information to offer you may use the templates below to make a submission. Please email completed forms to The Global Ocean Economics Project. You may also contact Global Ocean Economics researchers directly through the members section or use the contact page.

Government financial support form (Excel 165Kb)
Recreational Fishing Data Form (Excel)
Ex-Vessel Price Data Form (Excel)
Costs of fishing data form (Excel 49Kb)

Lenfest Ocean Futures Project

Andrew Dyck — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:00:00 +0000

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 high quality if your computer can support Flash 9.

YouTube link for high quality video
(You must click “Watch in High Quality” below the video)

Economics of Fraser River Sockeye Salmon Stocks

Andrew Dyck — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 16:37:23 +0000

Investigators

Dale Marsden (PhD project)
Ussif Rashid Sumaila (Supervisor)

Research Project Description

Background

Sockeye salmon have been key to British Columbia’s livelihood and culture for millennia. Many sockeye stocks show large cycles in abundance from year to year, but the causes of these cycles are not clear. As a result, Fraser River sockeye salmon stocks have historically been managed under the hypothesis of “cyclic dominance”, i.e., maintaining the cyclic behaviour of the stocks. Biological studies and changes in management have revealed that the potential yield of off-peak cycle lines could be much higher than was previously thought.

Major Research Questions

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?
Given uncertainty about the underlying biology of the system, what are the likely economic implications of different management approaches that might be implemented?

Analytical Framework

To address the first question I will conduct a retrospective analysis of management performance. I will use stock-recruitment data as the basis of the biological dynamics, and use prices, fishing costs and fishing capacity considerations to incorporate economics. We will then use a non-linear numerical optimization routine to “find” a fishery that maximizes a variety of objective functions that incorporate economic and social considerations.

I will use a Bayesian decision analysis framework to address the second question. The analysis will incorporate past estimates of stock-recruitment parameters and model structure. The outcomes under different management approaches will then be simulated and the associated costs and benefits calculated. This method allows trade-offs to be examined while taking uncertainty explicitly into account.

Project Duration

Two years (started December 2005).

Funding Sources

Doctoral Fellowship, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

University Graduate Fellowship , University of British Columbia

The Economic and Regulatory Affairs Directorate of Environment Canada, through an Applied Environmental Economics and Policy Research Scholarship

PhD Tuition Award, University of British Columbia Green Graduate Scholarship, Green College, University of British ColumbiaLast Updated: February 2006.

Global Database of Ex-Vessel Fish Prices

Andrew Dyck — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:00:01 +0000

Principal Investigator

Ussif Rashid Sumaila

Co-Investigators

Eny Buchary
Gakushi Ishimura
Yajie Liu
Dale Marsden
Louise Teh
And supported by many colleagues from around the world

Research Project Description

Background

Wholesale prices of fish and fisheries products are available from a number of sources. Surprisingly, however, very little data is available for ex-vessel prices, the price that a fisher when landing fish. This project aims to fill this void because this is the price that motivates fishers and therefore the most relevant for the analysis of sustainable fisheries.

Objectives

To compile a database of fish prices for all species from around the world, starting in 1950.

Approach

Data are gathered from a wide range of sources:

Official government statistics
Internet databases
Other government publications
Published literature

Expected Results

We aim to gather as representative a data set as possible, to cover the geographic, taxonomic and temporal range of fisheries from all over the world. We will then develop a method to estimate prices for those regions, species and years which are missing from our data set.

The resulting data set will be extremely valuable in a wide range of studies that investigate the forces that drive fishing behaviour.

Project Duration

Four years

Funding Source

The Pew Charitable Trusts, through the Sea Around Us Project.

Last updated 29 Apr 2004.