A SIMPLE BIOECONOMIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT MODEL: 

 A CASE STUDY OF THE AMERICAN LOBSTER FISHERYi 



Richard F. Fullenbaum^ and Frederick W. Bell-* 

 ABSTRACT 



The pressures of world economic expansion have led to more intensive exploitation of living 

 marine resources as a source of protein. The exploitation of these common property resources 

 leads, in many cases, to overfishing and depletion. This paper attempts to develop a simplified 

 management tool to prevent overexploitation and depletion of a fishery resource. A general 

 resource model is postulated embracing both biological and economic relationships. This 

 bioeconomic model approximates the operation of a fishery under free access to the resource. 

 A Schaefer type yield function is combined with a linear demand function, and other 

 standard economic relationships and simulations are performed to evaluate the model. Using 

 computer simulation, we imposed five management strategies on the case example, the 

 American lobster fishery. These strategies include (1) freezing fishing effort by raising license 

 fees: (2) reducing fishing effort to that necessary to harvest at the maximum sustainable 

 yield by raising license fees: (3) reducing fishing effort to an "economic optimum"" where 

 marginal cost of doing business is equal to marginal revenue from sales by raising license 

 fees: (4) instituting a "stock certificate plan"" where individual fishermen would own portions 

 of the resource and trade catch certificates on the open market: however, the total number of 

 catch certificates would not exceed the maximum sustainable yield: and (5) doing nothing. 

 The economic impact in terms of catch, fishing effort, number of fishermen, ex-vessel prices, 

 license revenues, and returns per boat and fishermen were computed for each management 

 strategy so that policymakers and industry leaders could see the alternative consequences of 

 these management positions. The simplified model also is available for use in evaluation of 

 other management schemes that might be suggested. 



In the past few years the world community has 

 become increasingly aware of the sea and its 

 resources. The pressures of world economic 

 expansion have led to more intensive exploita- 

 tion and, at the same time, to increasing con- 

 cern over the marine environment. Many man- 

 agement strategies used to protect these re- 

 sources from overexploitation have resulted in 

 inefficient use of gear and equipment as shown 

 by Crutchfield and Pontecorvo (1969). The 

 purpose of this paper is to develop a bioeconom- 

 ic model of living marine resource exploitation 

 which can be used to assess the economic im- 

 pact of alternative management strategies for 

 the U.S. inshore American lobster fishery. 

 The U.S. American lobster fishery is a classic 



case of rapid increases in consumer demand 

 impinging upon a limited resource (Bell. 1972). 

 It should be made quite clear that this analysis 

 is intended to predict the effects of alternative 

 actions without recommending any specific 

 policy. 



SPECIFICATION OF THE 

 GENERAL RESOURCE USE MODEL 



Before we are able to evaluate the economic 

 impact of various management strategies, it is 

 necessary to develop a general bioeconomic 

 model of how a fishery functions. The following 

 general model has been developed by Fullen- 

 baum, Carlson, and Bell (1971): 



' This article was first submitted for publication 7 

 August 1972. At that time, all data were as current as 

 could be obtained for purposes of the analysis. The views 

 of the authors do not necessarily represent the official 

 position of the U.S. Department of Commerce. 



2 Executive Office of the President, Office of Manage- 

 ment and Budget, Washington, DC 20503. 



3 Formerly of Economic Research Division, National 

 Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA: present address, Florida 

 State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306. 



or 



X = f{X, Kx) 

 Kx = Kg{X, K) 

 X =giX,K) 

 C =Kn 



(1) 

 (2) 



(3) 

 13 



Manuscript accepted June 1973. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72. NO. 1. 1974. 



