178 



unfair to industry and communities depending on this resource. 

 Commerce and NOAA need to articulate their policies to the regional 

 fisheries councils in a timely and reasonable fashion for purposes 

 of both efficiency and equity. 



Topic 6: What type of economic issues should the fisheries 

 management process consider when making public policy decisions 

 including allocation decisions on the Pacific whiting fishery? 



This testimony has focused on a number of complex and inter-related 

 issues affecting management of the Pacific whiting fishery. 

 Because the fishery is relatively new yet complex, analysis must be 

 comprehensive and forward looking in order to understand the long 

 run implications of management decisions. Even if analyzed by 

 competent economists, a "snapshot" look of "Net Economic Values", 

 where information about the fishery is sparse and property rights 

 for the resource non-existent, may be misleading. Different groups 

 may seek to derive different types of benefits from the fishery 

 (Sylvia 1992) . Differences in behavior and values can ultimately 

 affect the market value of the resource and how it would be 

 allocated. Models need to incorporate alternative objectives in 

 order to demonstrate these fundamental issues and be consistent 

 with the mandates of the Magnuson Fishery Conservation and 

 Management Act. Perfunctory and simplistic economic analysis, 

 which is accomplished primarily to meet procedural requirements 

 rather than to reveal important economic information, wastes the 

 analysts' abilities and deprives policymakers and other policy 

 actors from having information critical for making rational 

 management decisions. In addition, it is important that fisheries 

 biologists, economists, seafood technologists, and other scientists 

 work together to analyze this complex fishery and place this 

 analysis within the context of other west coast fisheries. 



