In this article we estimate the recreational use value of household trips to view shorebirds during the annual horseshoe crab/shorebird migration on the Delaware Bay. We use contingent valuation to estimate the value of day and overnight trips separately and use a discrete choice question followed by a payment-card question to generate our valuation data. Our best estimates for the value of a day trip are about $66–$90/household and for an overnight trip about $200–$425/household (2008$). Our data are from the 2008 season, and our average household size is 1.66. For some context, estimates from four other studies report values that vary from $63/trip/person to $442/trip/person. These studies vary in method and specific birding populations studied and mix day and overnight trips.

JEL Classification Codes: Q5

The fishery for Patagonian toothfish around the island of South Georgia in the Southern Ocean is a profitable operation targeting a high-value, slow-growing species. We substituted the complex Bayesian age-structured model currently used for assessments with a Schaefer production model, which performs equally well as an operating model for management strategy evaluation. Our analysis demonstrated that optimum long-term profitability using a discount rate of 2% would be achieved at a biomass of 59% of initial biomass, which is higher than the target biomass of 50% incorporated into the current management strategy, and at a reduction in effort of approximately 19%. A number of potential effort reduction strategies are investigated, several of which would achieve better conservation objectives and higher future profits from the fishery than those predicted using the current management strategy.

JEL Classification Codes: Q22, Q28

Despite a growing call for ecosystem-based fishery management, most fisheries are managed independently with little attention paid to linkages such as competition for resources and predator-prey relationships. As the predator-prey modeling literature has shown, such linkages can substantially alter the outcomes of management strategies from those predicted by models naïve to these linkages. In this article, we explore the implications of a linkage between fisheries due to an artificial predator-prey relationship; the use of one harvested species as an input to the harvest technology in another primary fishery whose biological productivity is also positively affected by bait consumption. These anthropogenic, technological, and biological linkages between the fisheries alter both the open-access and rent-maximizing equilibria of the primary fishery. Furthermore, shifts in economic, technological, or biological parameters of either fishery can have significantly different impacts on the bioeconomic equilibria than those predicted by a traditional single-species model.

JEL Classification Code: Q22

This study models technical efficiency with production risk in inputs. Data from a total of 64 fish farms randomly sampled from Oyo State, Nigeria, were used for the analysis. The study employed the stochastic frontier model with flexible risk specification. The empirical findings show that the mean fish output is significantly influenced by labor, fertilizer, and feed. Fertilizer and feed are found to be risk-increasing inputs, whilst labour is revealed to be a risk-reducing input. This implies that an average risk-averse farmer is expected to use less of fertilizer and feed and more labor compared to a risk-neutral farmer from the study area. Furthermore, it is revealed that labour, farming experience, education, and access to market significantly decreases the technical inefficiency of farmers. The estimated technical efficiency shows that the efficiency score is overstated when the production technology of the fish farms is modeled without the flexible risk component.

JEL Classification Codes: C01, C21, Q12, Q22

The aim of this exploratory study is to provide empirical insight into how mussel farmers perceive and manage risks. The results show that future price, de­mand for mussels, and changes in public regulation are the high-ranked perceived risks. Bad weather, oxygen depletion, harmful algal blooms (HABs), E. coli, change in governmental regulation, and public views towards mussel culture are also considered important risk factors in mussel farming. On the other hand, production at the lowest possible cost, cooperative marketing, good relations with government, liquidity, adaptation of new technology, and experience sharing are perceived as the most important risk management strategies. When developing and changing policies for farmers' satisfaction and for the long-term sustainability of mussel aquaculture, policymakers should consider these risks and risk management strategies emphasized by the farmers.

JEL Classification Code: Q22

Understanding the economic and biological status of a fishery resource is critical to designing efficient management policies. In one such attempt, this article assesses current and potential rents in the sole fishery in the English Channel. The sole fishery is found to experience rent dissipation due to significant disinvestment in the stock and substantial fleet overcapacity. The analysis also investigates alternative paths of attaining the optimal stock level.

JEL Classification Codes: C65, H23, Q22