paribus, than newer vessels. It is rather simple 

 to test this hypothesis by including in the tests 

 the age of the vessels. 



Hence, the dimensions of the capital input 

 will be measured by (1) gross tonnage, (2) horse- 

 power, (3) construction materials, and (4) age 

 of the vessel. 



Labor — The Crew 



Crew size could also be tested as an input 

 variable in the production function. It seems 

 reasonable that a larger crew would produce a 

 higher output, and this should be tested. 



One need not work in fisheries very long 

 before he is made cognizant of the "good captain 

 hypothesis." That is, the catch of a vessel depends 

 as much upon the managerial skill of the captain 

 and crew as it does upon the characteristics 

 of the vessel. As such, there is no way to test 

 this hypothesis. 



One might attempt to test the good captain 

 hypothesis by using the years of schooling or 

 the years of experience of the captain to arrive 

 at a proxy for his skill. One may suspect on 

 economic grounds that the best captains would 

 gravitate to the best vessels because they would 

 be able to buy the more productive vessels or 

 be hired away from the poorer vessels. In other 

 words, part of the higher output of a larger 

 vessel may not be due to its hardware but to 

 the superior men running it. In this analysis 

 we are restricted to crew size as one measurable 

 variable. 



Location 



The production function provides for the dif- 

 ferential productivity that could be due to 

 location with respect to the fishing grounds 

 through the variable called laud. Vessels from 

 some ports could have higher productivity than 

 vessels from other ports by being located closer 

 to the better grounds. Since these locations 

 cannot be appropriated, the vessels will allocate 

 themselves between ports so that effects on net 

 profits will be dissipated. It is possible to test 

 whether certain locations are more productive 

 by creating dummy variables that correspond 

 to home ports. If their coefficients are statistically 

 significant, then a location may be either more 

 or less productive than the average location. 



Technological Change 



One of the major problems encountered in the 

 management of fishing power has been the 

 difficulty in adjusting for technological change. 

 Attempts have been made to adjust for techno- 

 logical change, but on the whole they have been 

 less than satisfactory. 



The test for the added productivity of an 

 innovation should be done when the fleet is 

 in a period of transition from the use of the 

 old to the new technique. This method will 

 hold abundance and availability constant and 

 therefore, all vessels will have the same op- 

 portunities. Bell (1966) used a dummy variable 

 to measure the increased productivity due to 

 stern trawling. He created a variable that was 

 1 if a vessel was a stern trawler and if it was a 

 side trawler. The coefficient of the dummy 

 variable was the added productivity due to 

 stern trawling. 



This technique can be used to test the added 

 productivity of any innovation, for example, a 

 new electronic instrument or the use of spotter 

 planes or maybe even the use of a radically new 

 technique such as switching from bait boats to 

 purse seining. The added productivity of a new 

 technique would thus become a permanent 

 attribute of the vessels even after it was no 

 longer possible to measure the contribution of 

 the technique, i.e., even after it was universally 

 adopted. 



THE DATA 



The New England Trawl Fishery 



The National Marine Fisheries Sei"vice 

 (NMFS) has collected comprehensive data on 

 the landings of the New England trawl fleet 

 for many years. The data consist of landings 

 information by trip. The following information 

 is noted for each trip: 



1. Official number 



2. Departure date 



3. Arrival date 



4. Number of days fishing 



5. Grounds fished 



6. Pounds landed, by species 



7. Price/pound by species 



The data are stored on magnetic tapes and 

 can be manipulated with a digital computer. 



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