relate them to those of the sample fishermen in these 

 communities. 



To generate the information needed for this investi- 

 gation, a stratified random sample of 131 fishermen was 

 selected. The size of the sample depended essentially 

 on the estimated cost per interview and the budgetary 

 constraint. The allocation to each stratum was strictly 

 according to proportion of fishermen in each commun- 

 ity to the total number of fishermen of all three com- 

 munities. The survey data were supplemented by in- 

 formation on the local labor market obtained through 

 the cooperation of the regional offices of the Maine 

 Employment Security Commission. For the survey, a 

 structured questionnaire was developed and pretested. 

 Using the modified questionnaire and personal inter- 

 views, the survey was completed in 6 weeks. The re- 

 sponse rate was better than 90 percent. 



There were 5.750 lobster licenses issued in the state 

 in 1969. These 5.750 lobstermen fished a total of 

 805,375 traps or approximately 105.7 million trap-days 

 during the year 1969. There have been fluctuations in 

 the number of licenses issued over the past 10 yr. 

 Table 20 illustrates a seemingly cyclical pattern of 

 lobster licenses, showing a high of 6.472 in 1961 , a low 

 of 5,425 in 1967, and another^high of 7,117 in 1972. 



The communities chosen for study — Phippsburg, 

 Corea, and Beals — represent 277 fishermen or 4.4 per- 

 cent of the 6,316 fishermen licensed in 1 970. A sample 

 of 131 of the fishermen was randomly selected by 

 community as shown in Table 22. 



Table 22. — Distribution of the sample fishermen by communities. 



Average age of the lobstermen in the sample is 42.6 

 years. There are 15 below the age of 19 and 18 in the 

 age bracket 65 and over. The median annual income 

 for the group is $5,280 and average income is $6,213. 

 There are 13 fishermen with income less than $1,000 

 and 15 with income over $14,000. Of the 1 18 fishermen 

 who gave reasons for lobstering, 33 (which included 3 

 students) responses may be categorized as 

 "economic" and the rest "non-economic" including 

 home consumption, preference for the particular way 

 of life, influence of family, and so on. 



Of the 109 fishermen who supplied information on 

 number of traps, slightly over 50 percent owned less 

 than 300 traps; 23 fishermen owned more than 500 

 traps. Of the 93 fishermen who gave information on 

 investment in trap gear approximately 50 percent had 

 an investment of less than $2,000; only 3 had an in- 

 vestment of $8,000 and over. The average years of 

 education was 9.8. Approximately 40 percent had less 



than 9 yr of education. Of 131 fishermen, 41 indicated 

 that they received some type of formal vocational 

 training in areas including carpentry, metal working, 

 mechanic, professional, and clerical work. Of 81 

 fishermen when asked about preference for receiving 

 vocational training, 63 indicated no preference. Only a 

 small fraction expressed preference for training in 

 electrical, professional, and carpentry work. 



Among the 109 fishermen who supplied information 

 on income from part-time jobs, 77 indicated that they 

 had little or no income from this source. Only 7 indi- 

 cated that they received more than 50 percent of their 

 income from alternative jobs. These general charac- 

 teristics of the lobster force will be used in determining 

 the socioeconomic impact of various management 

 schemes discussed below. 



V. BIOECONOMIC SIMULATION OF THE 

 FISHERY 



A. The Nature of the Model. 



Before any specific management strategies are con- 

 sidered, it is first necessary to understand just how a 

 fishery functions from both the economic and biologi- 

 cal points of view without extensive management in- 

 tervention by government. This gives us a benchmark 

 from which the economic impact of various manage- 

 ment policies can be measured. Economic researchers 

 first attempt to develop a bioeconomic model which 

 will explain the most important behavioral factors for a 

 fishery over some period of time, such as ex-vessel 

 prices, fishing effort, earnings, and catch under condi- 

 tions of free access to the fishery resource. The 

 "model" consists of a series of mathematical relation- 

 ships which hopefully approximate the economic be- 

 havior of those participating in the fishery. The pre- 

 dictive power of such models is greatly influenced by 

 each of the building blocks, such as the hypothesized 

 relation between catch and effort or catch and ex- 

 vessel prices. The reader should remember that these 

 models only attempt to consider the most important 

 factors of a fishery and necessarily omit factors of 

 lesser importance over the long run. 



Although the technicalities of a bioeconomic model 

 will not be discussed here (see Appendix A), it should 

 be pointed out that the researcher essentially attempts 

 to explain the determinants of the demand and supply 

 offish harvested from a given resource. Most of this 

 empirical information has been developed in previous 

 sections. Supply or catch is directly determined by the 

 size of the fishery biomass and the number of vessels 

 fishing the resource (discussed in Section IV-D). The 

 number of vessels and fishermen fishing the resource 

 is determined by the overall level of consumer demand 

 for the fishery product (discussed in Section IV-A). 

 Consumer demand is determined by income per 

 capita, population, and ex-vessel prices relative to 

 other protein substitutes. As demand expands over a 

 period of time owing to the expansion of population 



27 



