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Lake Taupo is managed as a wild trout fishery funded entirely by the sale of angling licenses. Since 1986 license sales have more than halved and this study aimed to identify the factors driving this trend. We used an economic demand theory framework in which to estimate least squares multiple regression models of license sales for the 45-year period 1970/71–2014/15. Using first-differenced data to avoid multicollinearity, we found that the sale of each license type (i.e., adult day, week, month and season, and child day and season) was influenced by its own price and the prices of substitutes, together with a variable to measure the overall interest in Taupo angling – the total license sales to population ratio. In a separate model, we found that this ratio was primarily influenced by various measures of the quality of the fishing, together with the unemployment rate. Other variables used widely in the literature to explain declining angling participation, such as development, income, urbanisation, changing leisure interests, and demographic changes, were not statistically significant. We discuss the implications of our results for the management of the fishery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-run sustainable management of recreational fisheries in North America relies on license revenues to pay for conservation. This article examined the effect of changing license prices on purchases using time series data from Pennsylvania. I measured the effect of prices on yearly sales for three types of licenses: resident annual, nonresident annual, and 3-day tourist licenses. Results showed that demand is price inelastic for the annual licenses but slightly price elastic for the 3-day tourist license. An across-the-board increase in all license prices would not be an efficient way to increase revenues. In Pennsylvania, increasing the current price of the 3-day tourist license would likely decrease participation and revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake Erie is one of the most valuable natural resources in the United States, providing billions of dollars in benefits each year to recreationalists, homeowners and local governments. The ecosystem services provided by Lake Erie, however, are under threat due to harmful algal blooms. This paper provides recreational damage estimates using spatially and temporally varying algae measures and monthly fishing permit sales collected between 2011 and 2014. Results indicate that fishing license sales drop between 10% and 13% when algal conditions surpass the World Health's Organization's moderate health risk advisory threshold of 20,000 cyanobacteria cells/mL. For Lake Erie adjacent counties experiencing a large, summer-long algal bloom, this would result in approximately 3600 fewer fishing licenses issued and approximately $2.25 million to $5.58 million in lost fishing expenditures. Our results show a discrete jump in reduced angling activity upon crossing this threshold, with limited additional impacts associated with more severe algal blooms. This suggests that policies aimed at eliminating, rather than mitigating, algal levels are most beneficial to the Ohio angling industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) was created as a conservation tool – intended to provide “the best environmental choice in seafood” to consumers and to create positive incentives that would improve the status and management of fisheries. During its 15years, the MSC, which has an annual budget of close to US$20 million, has attached its logo to more than 170 fisheries. These certifications have not occurred without protest. Despite high costs and difficult procedures, conservation organizations and other groups have filed and paid for 19 formal objections to MSC fisheries certifications. Only one objection has been upheld such that the fishery was not certified. Here, we collate and summarize these objections and the major concerns as they relate to the MSC’s three main principles: sustainability of the target fish stock, low impacts on the ecosystem, and effective, responsive management. An analysis of the formal objections indicates that the MSC’s principles for sustainable fishing are too lenient and discretionary, and allow for overly generous interpretation by third-party certifiers and adjudicators, which means that the MSC label may be misleading both consumers and conservation funders. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses ocean nourishment concepts to increase fishing effectiveness. Ocean Nourishment has been defined in 1997 as the concept of supplementing existing ocean nutrients, similar to the agricultural green revolution. It notes that the Ocean Nourishment Foundation has been set up in 2006 to study a blue revolution in the ocean. It talks about application of ocean nourishment to fishing, regulation and fisheries licences, and the environmental risks of practicing ocean nourishment.

Abstract: This paper discusses the process and outcomes of a major buyback of commercial fishing concessions across all Australian Commonwealth-managed fisheries through 2006. It argues that the intent of the buyback program was ambiguous, the process was flawed, and the outcomes of doubtful benefit to fish or to fishermen. This case study directs attention to deeper issues that prevail in forms of managing people under the guise of a non-explicit ideology of “extol and control”. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article focuses on the case of Regina vs. Leonard Charles Lindstrom, Martin James Watts, John Charles Wilson and Wesley Lorne Price. The British Columbia Supreme Court ordered the quash of prior convictions and another trial be set. This decision was in consideration to the appeal made by Lindstrom and the rest with regards to their three offenses. It was found during the first trial that they were exercising an Aboriginal right when they fished, so the prior ruling seemed to be mistaken.

The article focuses on the case of Her Majesty The Queen vs. Brett Janvier. Janvier is a Treaty 6 Indian and a member of the Cold lake First Nation who was tried on three counts of selling fish without the appropriate licence, which is in contrary to the General Fisheries Regulations. He was caught redhandedly when he sold fish to an undercover agent. As he was tried before Alberta Provincial Court, he was found guilty on all three counts.

We develop and apply a new method for estimating the economic benefits of an environmental amenity. The method is based upon the notion of estimating the derived demand for a privately traded option to utilize an open access good. In particular, the demand for state fishing licenses is used to infer the benefits of recreational fishing. Using panel data on state fishing license sales and prices for the continental United States over a 15-year period, combined with data on substitute prices and demographic variables, a license demand function is estimated with instrumental variable procedures to allow for the potential endogeneity of administered prices. The econometric results lead to estimates of the benefits of a fishing license, and subsequently to the expected benefits of a recreational fishing day. In contrast with previous studies, which have utilized travel cost or hypothetical market methods, our approach provides estimates that are directly comparable across geographic areas. Our findings show substantial variation in the value of a recreational fishing day across geographic areas in the United States. This suggests that current practice of using benefits estimates from one part of the country in national or regional analyses may lead to substantial bias in benefits estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the case "R. v. Charlie" appealed at the Provincial Court of British Columbia by Justice Young on January 24, 2005. Peter Sumner Charlie, the defendant, has been charged with fishing without a license contrary to the Pacific Fishery Regulations and with unlawful possession of fish contrary to the Fisheries Act. He has asserted an Aboriginal right to fish on the Fraser River, in an area upstream of the Village of Yale.

Limited entry is used to manage many fisheries. Effectiveness depends on a program's ability to control aggregate fishing power, which fleet size and composition both affect. This article analyzes fleet composition and attrition in a limited-entry fishery, the California red sea urchin fishery. It explores the dynamics of heterogeneity in catch and revenue and applies duration analysis to study individual fisherman attrition using both individual-level and time-varying covariates. The results show that the fleet is becoming more homogenous but also more potent and spatially mobile. Regulations such as size limits and season restrictions tend to increase attrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the results of a study on the benefits of seafood ecolabeling. Impact of the fisheries certification program and ecolabel of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC); Variety of effectiveness measures of the MSC certification program; Market effects of the program.

High seas fisheries have become an important focus for concern. The failure to impose order in areas of international jurisdiction threatens the viability of the coastal states' attempts to manage resources within their 200 mile limits. The paper analyses the nature of high seas fisheries in the light of different property regimes. It suggests that the new regime, created in the 1990s largely as a result of the UN Conference on Straddling Stocks and Highly Migratory Species, effectively extends the influence of the coastal state into international waters and expresses reservations that effective management cannot be achieved without due respect for the concept of the commons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese fishing in the coastal waters of China and Korea has often caused serious disputes and was, at times, held by these two countries as a political pawn against Japan. Fishery disputes between Japan and Korea date front the fifteenth century, but culminated in an unprecedented hostility over fourteen years up to 1965. The fisheries agreement of 1965 restored peace between the parties, but is in need of review. Since 1955 fishery relations between China and Japan are regulated by nongovernmental arrangements. Preparations are under way for a formal agreement, where-upon Japan will seek to remove some of the restrictions imposed on its fishermen by China. An ideal method to regulate fishing in such enclosed waters as the Yellow and East China Seas is to conclude a multilateral treaty. Apart from the political relations among the coastal states, the outcome of the Third Law of the Sea Conference may improve the prospect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the responsibilities of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA). It states that Fisheries Operations Branch has five areas of responsibility including domestic compliance, foreign illegal fishing deterrence, and management of fish stocks. It mentions the seven areas of responsibility Fisheries of Management Branch including economics, policy, and licensing.

Strategies are recommended to extend the fractional license concept as part of the fisheries management approach in the United States. The adoption of fractional licenses within an existing limited entry program serves the same function as a license buy-back program, but the buy-back is financed by fishers through market transactions. Instead of imposing an overt tax or using general revenues to finance the buy-back, the financing is accomplished in the market for license fractions. Under a fractional licensing program, the costs of effort reduction are shared by all fishers. In contrast, effort reduction that is based upon some criteria to exclude some fishers from harvesting imposes all costs upon those excluded from fishing, while all benefits flow to those who receive permits.

The article reports that Mauritania and Senegal have signed a new fisheries agreement for one year. According to the author, the deal states that Mauritania will grant Senegal 300 fishing licences for traditional fishing and ten licences for industrial fishing. The agreement also mentions that Senegalese boats that fish in the waters of Mauritania should land ten percent of their catch in the country. A report that states that Senegal is expecting to grant Mauritania five licences for coastal fishing is also presented.