Structure and Impact of California’s Commercial Fisheries
Professor Steven Hackett Department of Economics Humboldt State University Arcata, CA 95521 707.826.3237 hackett@humboldt.edu
I am leading a project to estimate the economic contribution, or positive economic impact, of each of California’s commercial marine fisheries on the various coastal counties, as well as the state overall. In many ways this project represents an updating of a similar project by Dennis King in 1982. Similar efforts have recently been undertaken by the National Marine Fisheries Service for some fisheries on the west coast. Our project is different in that it is focused specifically on producing information on the economic contribution provided by fisheries, down to the county level, and including the landed condition of the fish. By focusing on the landed condition of fish we can take into account the economic contribution of both traditional fisheries and more recent live-fish sales.
The project will involve the use of survey research methods, as well as existing data, to estimate the aggregate revenues and expenditures broken out by fishery, gear type, port, and the condition of the landed fish (live or dead). All individual information will be kept strictly confidential, and only aggregate data without any individual identifiers will be reported.
The aggregate fishing revenue and expenditure data will then be used as inputs for measuring the economic contribution of California’s fisheries. Dennis King at the University of Maryland will be developing customized IMPLAN models for each coastal county, and the state overall, and these models will take into account major fishery/gear type/landed condition categories. The result of this analysis will be information showing the economic contribution of each fishery/gear type/landed condition category on coastal counties, as well as the state overall.
The process of estimating positive economic impact takes into account how commercial fishing revenues and expenditures flow through the local port economies, providing income and jobs for those providing fuel, bait, repair services, supplies, equipment, and dockage services, and ultimately to the entire local economy.
While we will be producing a report that serves as a baseline indicator of the current positive economic impact of commercial fisheries, the IMPLAN models we will develop can be used in the future to measure positive or negative economic impacts due to factors such as changes in regulations that affect the level of fishing activity.
Theresa Karasek, a student at the UCSB Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, is working as an intern for CLTFA this summer.
The Sustainable Fisheries Group at UCSB is funding her internship, in which she is working with Dr. Craig Barilotti, the CLTFA science advisor, to revise and update the CLTFA Lobster Fishery Overview he prepared in 2001. The revised overview will help to formalize fishery management and create a plan for how the fishery can use science in management.
Theresa is a graduate of St. Louis University, and is specializing in Coastal Marine Resources Management for her master’s degree at UCSB. She hopes to use her education to promote shark conservation and sustainable fishery management. She is in the group of Bren School students working on a master’s project with CLTFA as the client. This project will help CLTFA meet upcoming changes to the lobster fishery, including loss of fishery grounds to meet conservation and biodiversity goals under the Marine Life Protection Act, and formalizing fishery management to meet requirements of the Marine Life Management Act.
In her internship so far, Theresa has completed an outline of the revised fishery overview to ensure that the overview is clear and provides the information necessary to help with fishery management, education about the fishery, and Marine Stewardship Council sustainability certification. This has included entering fishery logbook data from 1980 – 2006 into Microsoft Excel so that the data can be easily used in reviewing the sustainability of the fishery and making management decisions.
She will be presenting on her internship and Master’s project at the pre-season CLTFA meetings at Dana Point and in the Santa Barbara-Ventura area.
We are Master’s students at the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara.
Under the leadership of John Guth and Chris Miller, we are working for the California Lobster & Trap Fishermen’s Association (CLTFA) to identify ways that we may assist the fishery. In the summer of 2008, an opportunity presented itself when CLTFA members at meetings in Dana Point and Santa Barbara voted to explore methods of self-fundraising for fishery research. The money would be used for projects relevant to the fishery. In partnership with CLTFA, we are investigating the commercial lobster fishery’s options for self-fundraising.
We would appreciate you taking 10 minutes to complete our survey. Your participation is vital to ensure our project captures perspectives of the entire fishery. The more input we receive from you, the more accurate and useful our recommendations will be to the fishery.
Since we are trying to reach the entire commercial lobster fishing community, surveys are being sent to every permit holder. Please note the survey responses will be completely anonymous and returned directly to us. Individual responses will not be shared. Any reports or presentations referencing these responses will report only aggregated results.
A copy of the survey is also available through Talib Wahab and John Law, or you can download from the attached link below.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this survey, please call us at (805)893-5524 or email us at southcoast@bren.ucsb.edu.
