Inequality in the Economic Impacts from Climate Shocks in Fisheries: The Case of Harmful Algal Blooms

Climate impacts disproportionately affect people that are most vulnerable and least able to adapt. The extent to which these equity impacts extend to fishing communities in the developed world is a question that has received surprisingly little attention. Here we explore the distributional impacts of a climate shock in one of the largest and most valuable fisheries on the West Coast of the United States. Specifically, we examine whether a series of two harmful algal blooms (HABs), occurring during the 2014–2016 Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave, differentially affected small and large vessels in the commercial California Dungeness crab fishery. The HAB events were managed with localized fishery closures in response to elevated levels of the HAB toxin, domoic acid, in crab tissue. We find evidence that large vessels had a greater ability to mitigate losses from the HAB events. Thus, the proportion of total revenue going to small-vessel operators and the proportion of small-vessel participation in the fishery fell in response to the HAB events in several California fishing ports. Our results, therefore, offer empirical evidence that climate impacts on fishing communities are not uniform and offer insights into potential alternative adaptation strategies for different ocean user groups.