FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 82, NO. 2 



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1971 



1972 1973 197M 



Investment Period: 



1975 1976 

 TIME ITERRS1 



1971 TO 1980  1977 TO 1980 » 1979 TO 1980 

 ZERO LINE fiDDED FOR REFERENCE 



FIGURE 3. — Net revenue for a wooden vessel 17.1 to 18.5 m long 

 operating out of Texas ports by investment period. 



while tremendous increases in the value of land- 

 ings were recorded in 1972 and 1978, 1974 and 1980 

 were the only periods in which the value of land- 

 ings actually decreased. It can further be shown 

 that fuel charges increased dramatically in 1974 

 and 1980 ( Fig. 2 ), making those years particularly 

 bad ones for Texas shrimp producers in terms of 

 net revenue. 



In general, steel vessels performed better 

 economically than wooden vessels irrespective of 

 the investment period. This may be attributed to 

 the durability of steel vessels and their ability to 

 operate under more adverse weather conditions 

 than wooden vessels. The performance of 18.6-20.0 

 m steel vessels was particularly outstanding (Fig. 

 6) while the same size wooden types performed 

 very poorly, recording losses throughout the study 

 period (Fig. 4). As explained earlier, steel vessels 

 are more durable and can spend more days 

 offshore fishing than wooden vessels. Besides, 

 steel vessels generally call for less maintenance 

 and repair costs and attract a better quality crew 

 than wooden ones. With the exception of the 17.1- 

 18.5 and 18.6-20.0 m wooden vessels, which re- 



corded losses over most of the period, all the other 

 vessels performed satisfactorily. 



Variation in Net Present Value 



Evaluating the investments based on the net 

 present value criterion, the 18.6-20.0 m steel ves- 

 sels would be ranked as the best investments in 

 the Gulf shrimp fishery (Table 6). Compared with 

 the other vessel types, they consistently showed 

 the highest net present values under all invest- 

 ment conditions examined. At the other end of the 

 continuum lie the 18.6-20.0 m wooden vessels, 

 which showed the poorest net present values 

 under each investment condition, actually show- 

 ing negative net present values and implying that 

 investing in 18.6-20.0 m wooden vessels is not a 

 feasible endeavor (Table 6). 



With the exception of 18.6-20.0 m wooden ves- 

 sels, 1971 investments showed the highest net 

 present values, followed by those made in 1977. 

 Investments made in 1979 were the least feasible; 

 this may be attributed to unusually high capital 



1971 1972 1973 197U 1975 1976 

 Investment Period: TIME (TEfiRSi 



   i 

 1979 1980 



1971 TO 1980 » 1977 TO 1980 » 1979 TO 1980 

 ZERO LINE fiDDED FOR REFERENCE 



FIGURE 4. — Net revenue for a wooden vessel 18.6 to 20.0 m long 

 operating out of Texas ports by investment period. 



370 



