Rebecca Metzner

Fishery Analyst – Fishing Capacity

Fishery Economics & Policy Division

FAO, Rome, Italy

Recognizing Over Capacity Basic Approaches, Current Practices

Recognizing Over Capacity Basic Approaches, Current Practices

• Reminder re overcapacity

• Basic approaches to recognizing overcapacity

• Current approaches for addressing capacity

• Looking forward

Overview

What is overcapacity?

What is overcapacity?

“Too many people (or boats) and too few fish.”

The amount of fish (or fishing effort) that • can be produced over a period of time

(e.g., a year or a fishing season) • by a vessel or a fleet if fully utilized and • for a given resource condition.

The Jargon

What is overcapacity?

• overinvestment in capital• excessive employment in labour• depleted abundance, overfishing of

targeted stock(s) and associated stocks• reduced returns to capital and labour• decline in quality of life for fishers and

their families • increasing political, management strife

Impacts of Overcapacity

Recognizing Overcapacity

Basic Approaches

Quantitative ApproachesRecognizing

Overcapacity: Basic

Approaches

• Rapid Appraisal (RA) techniques

• Peak-to-peak analysis

• Stochastic Production Frontiers (SPF)

• Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)

• Biological, Bioeconomic & Multi-objective modelling

FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 433/2

Qualitative Approaches

• Biological status of a fishery declining• Catch per unit effort decreasing• Value per unit effort decreasing • Conflict increasing• Compliance decreasing• Ratios:

– Harvest / target catch exceeding– season length to TAC decreasing

• Other measures – profitability declining– fleet aging– latent permits increasing

Recognizing Overcapacity:

Basic Approaches

Recognizing Overcapacity

Current Practices

Addressing Overcapacity

• General Management

• Plans of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity

• Reduction & Management

• Measurement & Directed Management

• Avoidance

Recognizing Overcapacity:

Current Practices

Looking Forward

What do we want?

• Essentials

• Minimum conditions

• Best practices

Looking Forward

Thank you