A Comparison of the Effects of Decommissioning, Catch Quotas, and Mesh Regulation in Restoring a Depleted Fishery

Possible means of rehabilitating the many depleted fisheries in European waters now form a topic of great interest and relevance. This paper uses bioeconomic analysis to predict returns for the Irish Sea Nephrops fishery from rationalisation through three types of management regulations. These regulation measures are (a) decommissioning, i.e., reducing fleet size, (b) catch quotas, while maintaining fleet size, and (c) mesh size regulation. The analysis clearly demonstrates the gains to be obtained from rationalising the Nephrops fishery. In addition, socio-economic implications of trying to preserve employment levels while rationalising are examined. This is done by attempting to anticipate the reactions of the industry to the different management processes. The paper concludes that the current performance of the fisheries compared to potential profitability is extremely poor. Substantially improved returns would result from strong management control. However, trying to preserve social equity, while theoretically possible, would necessitate complicated constraints to the operation of the management system.