A model of fishing periods applied to the European sardine fishery

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a model which makes it possible to quantify the effects of using fishing periods in a fishery where environmental and fleet productivity uncertainty exist. The model is applied to the European sardine fishery in which, furthermore, the countries implied introduce different management measures in their fishery jurisdiction. The results show that setting fishing periods in order to reach the proposed TAC reduces the risk of over-exploitation of the resource. Also, the global profits are reduced but the cost of reducing the risk of overexploitation is not spread out equally among the countries which participate in the fishery. Portugal incurs the costs of introducing limits on the number of fishing days and Spain obtains the profits obtained from the maintenance of greater stock levels.