Duration: 10/01/2003 to 09/30/2009

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

This multistate proposal outlines a study of the relationship of marketing and trade and the management of fisheries and aquaculture resources. The proposed research will focus on three inter-related areas: 1) niche marketing and new value-added products, 2) managing fisheries and aquaculture for dynamic markets, and 3) fisheries governance and market-based fisheries asset management. Four cross-cutting themes integrate the object objectives: 1) frontier technologies including aquaculture biotechnology, digital technology, and new food processing technology; 2) property and stakeholder rights, 3) spatial management and markets; and 4) market coordination and market system integration.

The researchers proposing this work are from Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Washington, California, Oregon and Rhode Island. Their joint participation in this proposal allows the general research themes to be studied from multiple perspectives and analytical approaches. This proposal includes a brief Statement of the Issue for each major area of research.

1. Marketing, Niches, and New Products.

The last three decades signified the globalization of the world's economies. Total world trade increased from approximately US$2 trillion (in nominal terms) in 1974 to more than US$12 trillion (nominal) today. This expansion of world trade is also observed in fishery products. Total international exports increased from 10.47 million metric tons (mt) in 1981 to approximately 25.95 million mt in 2000, an increase of over 140% (FAO, Various Years).

Many rural communities in this nation and its affiliated territories that depend on the production of captured and farmed aquatic products are at a crossroad because of the globalization of the fishery products trade, increasing competition for market share, and increasing consolidation of end-user institutions,. They can choose to fight the changes taking place around them, sticking to traditional practices, approaches and products - or - choose to embrace this change and adapt new methods and frontier technologies, such as new approaches to fisheries management, advanced aquaculture techniques, and innovative food processing. The former choice will almost certainly lead towards continued economic decline. The later choice, if embraced, will lead to renewed effort and economic security in a changing marketplace.

To meet the challenges ahead, these communities, and the small to mid-size companies that support them, must innovate by developing new products that end-users favor, position products in market niches that increase market penetration, and/or communicate with end-users to maximize the perceived value of the product. Thus, information concerning product distribution and flow, end-user preferences and perception, pricing, processing methods and technology, packaging, and institutional and structural arrangements in the supply chain are needed to ensure the success of marketing in domestic and international markets. Improved marketing will result in enhancing the sustainable return to fisheries and aquaculture assets.

2. Managing Fisheries and Aquaculture for Markets.

Two sub-areas of research are identified under this category.

a. Optimal aquaculture production management strategies and optimal fisheries regulatory instruments and management systems.

Many aquatic species exhibit inter-and intra annual changes in physiological characteristics which significantly influence consumer and producer welfare. From the capture fisheries perspective, it is essential to select regulations and management systems which maximize these market-related economic benefits from optimally controlling product quality and product attributes for efficient management of these species and achieving national and regional objectives including economic efficiency, full utilization, and stock conservation. Similarly, in order for aquaculture producers to stay competitive, it is essential for them to maximize the financial benefits from optimally managing their operations to capture the potential benefits from the seasonal changes in biological growth and physiological changes. The need for practical bio-economic models that can be used to assist fishery managers and aquaculture producers to improve fishery and aquaculture-related producer and consumer welfare is then evident.

An additional topic of research interest deals with the spatial nature of renewable fishery resources. New scientific work reveals that most fishery resources are distributed over space in a patchy and discrete manner, connected by various dispersal mechanisms. "New" spatial models that integrate biological assumptions about populations distributed over space as well as assumptions about the spatial behavior of fishery resource users are needed for effective evaluation of various policy options. This new class of models can be used to illuminate important mechanisms operating between the fishery resource, the industry, markets, and the regulatory process.

b. Competitiveness of capture fisheries and aquaculture.

Modern aquaculture experienced remarkable growth over the last two decades in many regions of the world. This growth dramatically altered the way seafood products are traded in the international market. Along with increases in production levels, optimization of production practices and breakthroughs in biotechnology research have resulted in declining costs of production for most species. In contrast, many traditional commercial fisheries in the world and in the United States (e.g., New England groundfish fishery) currently face a myriad of problems such as overexploitation of fish stocks, overcapitalization of fishing fleets, and poor marketing infrastructure. In general, this trend is expected to continue in the foreseeable future, implying that growth in the dynamic aquaculture sector will contribute to erode the competitiveness of traditional fishery products. Thus, it is essential to analyze how the emergence of farm-raised species in the U.S. seafood market is affecting the competitiveness of traditional capture fishery products. Results of this analysis can be very useful in devising future plans of action to help the traditional fisheries sector adjust to the changing market scenario.

3. Governance of Fisheries: Transition to Market-Based Management.

In view of the collapse of many commercial fish stocks in the U.S. and other regions of the world, fisheries management has been transitioning from council-based towards stakeholder (individuals, cooperatives or communities) rights-based systems which utilize market forces to allocate and sustain resources. These systems now dominate fisheries management in Iceland, New Zealand and Australia and are now being used in several US fisheries. A number of questions naturally arise from this transition movement: Are the new systems working better than the council system? Are they appropriate for all fisheries? How will they change the marketing of fish? What new market institutions will develop to value and exchange fisheries assets which are created by these systems? Can these systems appropriately handle sustainable ecosystem approaches to fisheries management and spatial consideration? The economic and social welfare of coastal communities which rely on fishery resources warrants a prompt search for answers to these questions.

Subproposals.

Each major area of research encompasses a number of subproposals targeting specific areas of interests. A brief Statement of the Issue is included for each subproposal.

1. Marketing, Niches, and New Products.

' Assessment of the Taste, Preferences, and Trade of Seafood in Asia: Sea Cucumber.

Sea cucumber is one of the traditionally consumed seafood items in Asia. However, taste and preferences, trade, the interaction of its harvest on resource and its management has not been systematically analyzed. World trade is largely determined by Hong Kong imports, which accounts approximately for 72% of world trade. Hong Kong imports increased steadily from 1990 to 1994 and declined thereafter. The factors for the increase and subsequent decline in Hong Kong imports are not clearly known. According to different anecdotal information sources, it may attributed to continuing weakness of economic conditions in Hong Kong, changing taste and preferences of the mainland China market, and over harvesting of the sea cucumber resources in some areas such as the Galapagos, or a combination of the above (Cheng, personal communication; Haws, personal communication; Wu, personal communication).

2. Managing Fisheries and Aquaculture for Markets.

a. Optimal aquaculture production management strategies and optimal fisheries regulatory instruments and management systems.

' Optimal Scheduling for Shrimp Mariculture Growout.

This subproposal deals with the development of decision aids to assist U.S. shrimp farmers to better manage their farms. In particular, it addresses the question of optimal stocking and harvesting schedules for efficient operations of shrimp farms in order to increase the profitability and hence the expansion of the US shrimp industry. A recent discussion with CEATECH, Inc., one of the world's most technologically-advanced shrimp farms, has indicated the urgent need of developing an operational model to assist growers to increase their profitability by identifying the most efficient stocking and harvesting schedules. Efforts will be geared towards developing a model and a decision-support software general enough to be applicable to other shrimp growers in the US.

' Managing for the Market.

The relationship between fishery management and seafood market-related benefits associated with output product quality, utilization, diversification, and product price is still poorly understood. Market-related benefits are influenced by the type of management system, property rights structure, and choice of specific regulatory instruments. Many finfish and shellfish species exhibit inter-and intra annual changes in physiological characteristics which significantly influence consumer and producer welfare. On the U.S. West coast, shellfish species including shrimp and oysters, and finfish species such as Pacific whiting and albacore tuna display significant variation in input and output product qualities. Selecting regulations which maximize the economic benefits from optimally controlling product quality and product attributes is essential for efficient management of these species.

A second important issue is the development of private and public management strategies which integrate utilization, conservation, and sustainability objectives. Tools such as digital technologies offer approaches for not only improving fishery science and management, but integrating private and public resource management with market and consumer demands. Bar codes and other traceability technologies can provide mechanisms to efficiently integrate business operations, resource management, sustainability, and market information needs in order to improve industry and consumer benefits.

b. Competitiveness of capture fisheries and aquaculture.

' Competitiveness of the U.S. Shrimp Industry.

The Southeast U.S. shrimp fleet generates more than $500 million in dockside revenues annually. Shrimp imports to the U.S., largely from aquacultural sources, have also played an important role in the markets, increasing by more than 200 % in the last two decades. Historically, these unprocessed imports were channeled along with domestic landings into the U.S. processing sector. However, exporting nations are processing a higher proportion of their production prior to transit. This has seriously impacted different sectors of the US shrimp industry. Increased imports, particularly from South America and Asia, have been linked to a reduction in deflated ex-vessel prices received for domestically landed shrimp and subsequent exit of a large number of vessels from the fishery. Simultaneously, the U.S. shrimp-processing sector has found itself directly competing with imported processed products. As a result, the marketing margins in the sector have fallen significantly in recent years, followed by a reduction in the number of processing facilities. This situation calls for an examination of the industry's linkages to international aquacultural shrimp production and processing to obtain a deeper insight into how the shrimp industry, and the harvest fishery in particular, can be managed to promote long-run stability and economic competitiveness.

' The Revolution in Aquaculture Biotechnology and Implications for Traditional Fisheries and Growth in the Seafood Sector.

This subproposal proposes a market analysis of the relative competitiveness of the emerging aquaculture sector (including domestic production and imports) and the traditional fishing industry in the U.S. seafood market place. Aquaculture grew spectacularly over the last two decades and is dramatically influencing the way seafood products are traded in the international market. Because this trend is expected to continue in the foreseeable future, growth in the aquaculture sector is poised to erode the competitiveness of traditional fishery products.

Worldwide, fisheries management agencies are conducting great efforts aimed at the recovery of economically important fish stocks. Well-designed and implemented management regulations, coupled with the intrinsic resiliency of fish populations, may result in the revival of many fish stocks. In the meantime, seafood markets will probably evolve towards continued supply of aquacultured species, some of which may substitute for traditional wild species. The extent to which this process occurs will determine in large part the economic viability of the capture fisheries industry.

3. Governance of Fisheries: Transition to Market-Based Management.

' Incorporating Space in Resource Management Modeling.

Over the past decade or so, important new knowledge about the spatial distribution of ocean resources has emerged from oceanographic monitoring and climate research. New scientific work reveals that most renewable resources are distributed over space in a patchy and discrete manner, connected by various dispersal mechanisms. The dispersal mechanisms affect adults and larval distribution, and are generally driven by small and large-scale oceanographic events. The spatial nature of renewable resources implies that our conventional conceptual models that depict populations as uniform and homogeneous are too simple. This subproposal focuses on developing new spatial models that integrate biological assumptions about populations distributed over space as well as assumptions about the spatial behavior of resource users. The modeling will illuminate important mechanisms operating between the resource, the industry, markets, and the regulatory process.

' Improving the Governance and Rationalization of Marine Fisheries.

Academic scientists and resource managers have invested considerable effort in trying to understand and develop mechanisms to address some of the considerable challenges that arise in the management of renewable resources. It is common for publicly owned natural resources to be managed under various forms of collaborative governance structures, with representatives of different stakeholder groups. In 1976, the passage of the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (commonly referred to as the Magnuson-Stevens Act) established a new system of federal fishery governance through regional fishery management councils. The councils were designed to integrate resource users directly into the decision processes for regulating fisheries in federal waters. Final approval of the councils' fishery management plans rests with the Secretary of Commerce, who oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service. When the Magnuson-Stevens Act was drafted in 1976, the top priority was to support the development of U.S. fisheries to take advantage of the expansion of U.S. jurisdiction over fishery resources in the 200-mile exclusive economic zone. Since then, many of the major commercial fish stocks have been overexploited. These problems were subsequently addressed in reauthorizations of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, in particular the Sustainable Fisheries Act (1996) which represented a major shift in emphasis from promoting the growth of fisheries to regulating fishing not just for the maintenance of an individual stock but also for ecosystem sustainability. The transition has been bumpy and has led to considerable controversy over the efficacy and equity of the council system. Now that the fisheries governance system has been in place for 25 years, there is sufficient experience to merit examination of the success and efficacy of the regional councils.

Market-based approaches to rationalization have evolved greatly since first introduced in the United States. Beginning with the American Fisheries Act, Congress designed a rationalization policy to benefit both harvesters and processors. A unique style of fishery cooperatives was the chosen path for the management of the largest fishery in the world, the North Pacific pollock fishery. The particular policy design created a virtual quota allocation to harvesters and processors. Now, the North Pacific Fisheries Management Councils is on the doorstep of another first. After several years of industry negotiations, the NPFMC designed a BSAI crab rationalization policy around the unique circumstance of the crab fisheries. This multistate group of researchers is uniquely positioned to provide coordinated economic and policy guidance concerning the evolution of the new rationalization policy. This challenge may be met through fishery-specific research or by guiding national policy, e.g., Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization.

Related, Current and Previous Work

A CRIS search was conducted to determine how the research proposed in this multistate project relates to previous and/or ongoing research. The search revealed the existence of related projects but no evidence of duplication was found as the current proposal extends or brings new analytical dimensions to the general themes of research. Appendix A contains a list of related projects as revealed in the CRIS search.

In general, some projects were found which examine and question the effectiveness of fishery management programs in the country (Sutinen and Gates, Mullin, Woodward) but none of them explicitly tackles the issue of transition towards market-based management. The exception is the theoretical work by Matulich, who designed ITQ management systems for the North Pacific pollock and crab fisheries. In this regard, the contribution of the proposed multistate project is to examine whether these models would be applicable to other fisheries in the U.S. Research on spatial issues as they affect fisheries population dynamics is currently being conducted (Mason, Rudstam et al.); however, these studies are focused on the ecological aspects of the problem while the proposed subproject is essentially an economic and management analysis. Wessells et al. recently completed a relevant project on the analysis of various private strategies and public policies concerning both capture and aquaculture species (hedonic analysis of bluefin tuna, shrimp futures markets, and the impact of ecolabeling). Specific subproposals in the multistate project emerge as necessary extensions to this work. Finally, the CRIS search revealed virtually no work on the potential market interactions between aquaculture and traditional fisheries. The Aquaculture Outlook (Harvey and Cash) remains the only source of information on future trends for the aquaculture industry; however the scope of these analyses is rather limited and mostly anecdotic.

Literature Review

Several participants in this multistate proposal conducted recent research on the analysis of niche markets and new products. For example, Zucker and Anderson (1998) studied preference and choice behavior at two levels of the niche market for sushi/sashimi quality summer flounder. Also, Fong and Anderson (2002) conducted a conjoint analysis incorporated into a cohort model to estimate optimal harvest sizes for the blacktip shark fin industry in Asia.

In general, the problem of determining the optimal harvest size of farmed fish was first analyzed and modeled by Bjorndal (1988) using an optimal control framework for salmon culture. Arnason (1992), Heaps (1993, 1995), and Hean (1994) extended this model to include optimal feeding schedule, density dependent growth and mortality and potential culling, and release cost, respectively. More recently, Forsberg (1996, 1999) proposed an alternative multi-period linear programming approach to model explicitly the size-structure of farmed fish in determining the optimal stocking and harvesting schedules. Applications to crustaceans include Leung and Shang (1989) Hochman et al. (1990), Leung et al. (1990), and Tian et al. (2000). While these studies have provided the theoretical foundation to model optimal stocking and harvesting decisions for shrimp culture, they are unfortunately not readily applicable to commercial marine shrimp operations. A major problem is that none of the models accounts for the economic effect of the final harvest size distribution which can be of significant importance in deriving the optimal stocking and harvesting schedules. Also, the impact of stocking size on final harvest size distribution has never been investigated.

Biological growth and physiological changes can significantly impact product quality, market prices, and resource benefits (Love 1997). Researchers have attempted to incorporate seasonal biomass growth and a size-price function into the determination of optimal harvest plans (Bjxrndal 1988; Anderson 1989). A weight-price and product quality relationship was also found to be important for determining the optimal harvest plan for fish species such as tunas (Carroll et al. 2001; McConnell and Strand 2000). Homans and Wilen (1997) argued that many of the welfare gains generated by adopting rights-based fisheries management system stem from market and quality improvements.

In a recent paper, Marco et al. (2002) illustrated the potential opportunities of using digital technologies to compile product information and track seafood production from harvester to final market destination. These technologies are considered to have broad applicability in linking product information, resource management, and market demand.

Keithly and Diagne (1998) developed a multi-equation regional shrimp export-supply/import-demand model to assess the impact of increased exports to the U.S. on domestic dockside price. Using primary and secondary data sources, Keithly and Roberts (1994) examined the role of imports in the domestic processing sector. This early analysis was subsequently refined when Diop (1999) developed a product-specific econometric model focused on the impacts of a reduction in marketing margins on firm entry and exit. Keithly and Kazmierczak have also initiated a NMFS (MARFIN) funded study that will examine in detail the changes that occur in short- and long-run shrimp fishermen behavior as a result of various economic stimuli, including dockside price.

Recent studies have begun to address the substitution effects of aquaculture products on their wild counterpart and the general impact of aquaculture on the wild fish market. In a review of three groups of farmed fish (salmon in the European and U.S. markets, American catfish, and European sea bass/sea bream), Asche et al. (2001) concluded that there is little substitution between farmed and captured products other than that existing between the farmed and wild forms of the same species. However, these authors noted that increased supply and falling production costs would eventually lead aquaculture to take market share away from traditional wild species. They also concluded that data deficiencies and incorrect choice of analytical tools may have precluded researchers from better discerning interactions between aquaculture and capture fisheries in the market place.

Anderson (2002) has probably made the strongest case on the role of aquaculture as the catalyst for future growth in the seafood industry. As harvests of wilds fish populations are expected to remain stable or even decline, it is up to aquaculture to make up for the widening gap between world demand and supply of fish products.

Recent work that has been focused on developing a new class of spatial models that integrates biological assumptions about populations distributed over space as well as assumptions about the spatial behavior of resource users will be continued in this multistate project. For example, Sanchirico and Wilen, 2001a, 2001b, , Wilen et. al. 2002, and Smith and Wilen, 2003 explore the implications of an integrated spatial bioeconomic modeling framework that can be used to assess various policy options. The model has been used to predict the implications of creating permanent marine reserves in various fractions of the habitat.

Objectives

1. Expand and develop seafood markets by developing new marketing ideas, identifying market niches, and developing alternative seafood products.
   
2. Improve fishery and aquaculture management by developing decision support tools to integrate management and marketing.
   
3. Increase the efficency of fishery governance by developing ideas and knowledge supporting transition to market-based fishery management.
   
4. 
   

Methods

1. Marketing, Niches, and New Products. ' Assessment of the Taste, Preferences, and Trade of Seafood in Asia: Sea Cucumber. The analysis of end-user preference structures is the major focus of the research. We will use a combination of in-person interview and mailed surveys for a rigorous analysis of what current and potential end-users of sea cucumbers products domestically and internationally are looking for. First portion of the "focused" end-user analysis consists of obtaining the end-users current buying practices, types of channels of distribution used, trade-flows, and socioeconomic background of the respondent's firm. The second objective for our "focused" end-user analysis is to obtain the product characteristics of sea cucumber that buyer favors. This will be conducted by using conjoint analysis. Conjoint analysis is an approach which takes a buyer's overall evaluation of a product, such as Pollock fillets, and decomposes it into end-user's (e.g. restaurant buyer) evaluation of individual components of the product, such as size, product form, price, and color. Conjoint analysis is a well-established and important tool in fisheries market research. 2. Managing Fisheries and Aquaculture for Markets. a. Optimal aquaculture production management strategies and optimal fisheries regulatory instruments and management systems. ' Optimal Scheduling for Shrimp Mariculture Growout. Rather than resorting to classical optimal control or mathematical programming formulations, we propose to use the system dynamics approach to model the shrimp growth process and the relating stocking and harvesting strategies. The shrimp growth process can be modeled adequately without compromising on its realism by using the stock and flow building blocks of the systems dynamics approach. Besides its tremendous flexibility in modeling complexities and feedback loops, the recent availability of powerful software such as Stella) has offered modelers many flexible and easy to use input and output routines to handle complex real-world situations. The model will be constructed in close cooperation with CEATECH, Inc. to mimic the actual decision process as realistically as possible. Input and output routines will be developed around the Stella model to facilitate the ease of use of the developed model. Interface will be developed to allow users to adjust major inputs such as stocking size and density dynamically. Similarly, model outputs will be arranged and displayed as easily discernable graphs and tables. ' Managing for the Market. i. Using market and consumer survey techniques, we will collect price, product quality and cost information for a number of important U.S. and international fisheries including shrimp, scallops, tuna, and groundfish species. This information will be analyzed using econometric models to determine the relationships between product quality, price, and demand from different segments of national and international markets. Biological information will be collected for each fishery. Biological and market information will then be integrated into a management modeling framework and analyzed using simulation and optimization techniques. A key focus will be evaluating spatial and intertemporal-dependent regulatory instruments that impact product quality, product output, and market price. Each analysis will look at a range of policy tools, including rights based management strategies. ii. Research will focus on the West coast albacore fishery. Harvested albacore tuna will be bar coded and product specific information including size, fat content, and levels of omega-3's will be entered into an electronic logbook that will also record time, location, water temperature, storage temperature, bycatch, and other firm level operational data. Data from participating vessels will be downloaded into a single database. Barcodes will be used to track product through distribution channels to final users. Consumer and market surveys will be conducted to evaluate consumer desirability for fishery and product information. Consumer analysis will then be used to design market support information including labeling and product websites. Using barcodes, buyers will be able to source product and fishery information from a website including information on fishing operations, the marine environment, and albacore management. b. Competitiveness of capture fisheries and aquaculture. ' Competitiveness of the US Shrimp Industry. The emphasis for this project will be on the integration of the harvesting and processing sector models, with linkages provided to a trade model that can account for the implied productivity changes in shrimp aquaculture and the real impact of shifting exchange rates. The analysis will be based, in part, on time-series econometrics using panel data (see, for example, Baltagi 2001) and quasi-general equilibrium modeling; perhaps from a new trade theory perspective (e.g., Tybout 2001). Since all analysis cannot be completed using econometric analysis, a reasonable approach might be to use a series of econometric models that are linked together for simulation purposes that focus on the available policy instruments. ' The Revolution in Aquaculture Biotechnology and Implications for Traditional Fisheries and Growth in the Seafood Sector. i. Literature reviews and interviews with experts will be carried out to obtain updated estimates of production/landing and transportation costs for aquacultured and traditional capture species. ii. Stochastic models will be used to evaluate how production costs of aquaculture species may be affected by specific advances in biotechnological research. The stochastic models will be based on the methodology used in Zucker and Anderson (1999) analysis of a land-based summer flounder aquaculture firm. iii. Supply forecasts for the most important aquaculture species (catfish, salmon, and tilapia) will be obtained via multivariate time-series analysis using the state-space approach developed by Aoki (1987). Data for the analysis will be obtained for the most part from USDA and FAO sources. iv. and v. The dynamic linkages (i.e., substitution effects) between prices and quantities supplied of a representative number of capture and aquaculture species will be explored through a dynamic simultaneous equations system (DSES). Keithly et al. (1993) used this approach to estimate the impact of the world farmed shrimp prices on the U.S. shrimp price dynamics. 3. Governance of Fisheries: Transition to Market-Based Management. ' Incorporating Space in Resource Management Modeling. The specific methodological focus of this project will be on developing integrated bioeconomic models of natural resource. The integrated models will consist of linked component models depicting mechanisms driving the spatial population dynamics of the resource itself, models of spatial behavior of resource users, models of spatial markets, and models of regulatory behavior (Homans and Wilen 1997). The models will be applied and calibrated to particular empirical settings and then used to both understand fundamental spatial and dynamic processes at work as well as forecast the implications of a range of policy options. ' Improving the Governance and Rationalization of Marine Fisheries. A committee of 14 members (fishery management; public policy; natural resource law; fisheries science, economics, and anthropology) will be formed to elaborate a plan of work for the project. Subgroups of the committee will conduct visits to each of the eight fishery management councils and regional NMFS centers. The committee will process the information collected and create a final report with findings and recommendations.

Measurement of Progress and Results

Outputs

• Each subproject has been designed to produce concrete results that benefit its intended target audience. For instance, the conjoint analysis of sea cucumber in Asia will provide industry participants with a complete characterization of consumer preferences and other factors influencing marketing and trade of this new product. The subproject on optimal scheduling of shrimp mariculture growout will create a mathematical model and a user-friendly decision-support software to assist US shrimp farmers in the management of their operations. On the other hand, design and evaluation of digital based systems is expected to become an essential tool to improve resource management in seafood harvesting and processing. The studies analyzing the interaction between fisheries and aquaculture products will provide specific policy recommendations to improve the competitiveness of US capture fishery industries in view of the changing market conditions. Similarly, evaluation of the council-based fishery management systems and new rationalization programs will reduce the difficulties associated with the transition to a market-based management of fishery resources.

Outcomes or Projected Impacts

• The multistate project is intended to enhance consumer and producer welfare of all involved stakeholders. More specifically, each subproject is aimed at increasing the profitability of the US capture fishery and aquaculture industries, either through improvement of management schemes for natural fishery resources or the optimization of production and marketing practices for all seafood products (wild and farm-raised).

Milestones

(2004):Preliminary findings and results will be presented at a special session at the IIFET meeting in Summer 2004.

(2005):Progress and accommplishments will be reported at the NAAFE meeting

(2006):Progress and accommplishments will be reported at the IIFET meeting

(2007):Progress and accommplishments will be reported at the NAAFE meeting

(2008):Results and recommendations will be compiled in a special issue of Marine Resource Economics and/or an edited book.

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Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Outreach Plan

Different mechanisms will be used to communicate the results of this multistate project to all interested parties. The most important findings and recommendations will be presented in a special issue of Marine Resource Economics. In addition, special sessions will be organized in the following professional meetings: WAS (World Aquaculture Society), NAAFE (North American Association of Fisheries Economists), IIFET (International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade), and AAEA (American Agricultural Economics Association). Plans also include the development of a website and the publication of an edited book if the volume of generated information warrants it. On a more direct level, Quentin Fong, who holds a major appointment in fisheries extension, will conduct training sessions with selected extension agents. Other members of the committee will help conduct market-based workshops with industry representatives and submit research results as publications. Finally, different media (Seafood Business, NPR, The Wave.com) will be targeted to ensure information reaches the largest possible audience.

Organization/Governance

The participants in the multistate project are:

1. Marketing, Niches, and New Products: Gil Sylvia (Oregon State University), James L. Anderson (University of Rhode Island) and Quentin Fong (University of Alaska, Kodiak).
2. Managing Fisheries and Aquaculture for Markets: James L. Anderson, Gil Sylvia, PingSun Leung (University of Hawaii at Manoa), James E. Wilen (University of California, Davis), Walter R. Keithly, Jr. (Louisiana State University), Richard F. Kazmierczak, Jr. (Louisiana State University), and Sam Pooley (National Marine Fisheries Service, Hawaii).
3. Governance in Fisheries: Transition to Market-Based Management. James E. Wilen, Scott C. Matulich (Washington State University), Jon Sutinen (University of Rhode Island), and Sam Pooley.

The group will convene a meeting to elect a Chair, vice chair, and secretary for the technical committee of the project. Quentin Fong will serve as Outreach Coordinator.

Literature Cited

Anderson, J.L. 2002. Aquaculture and the future: why fisheries economists should care. Marine Resource Economics 17:133-151.

Anderson, L.G. 1989. Optimal intra- and interseasonal harvesting strategies when price varies with individual size. Marine Resource Economics 6:145-162.

Aoki, M. 1987. State-Space Modeling of Time Series. Springer Verlag, Berlin.

Arnason, R. 1992. Optimal feeding schedules and harvesting time in aquaculture. Marine Resource Economics 7:15-35.

Asche, F., T. Bjorndal, and J. A. Young. 2001. Market interactions for aquaculture products. Aquaculture Economics and Management 5:303-318.

Baltagi, B. H. 2001. Econometric Analysis of Panel Data (2nd edition). John Wiley & Sons.

Bjorndal, T. 1988. Optimal harvesting of farmed fish. Marine Resource Economics 5:139-59.

Carroll, M.T., J.L. Anderson, and J. Martinez-Garmendia. 2001. Pricing U.S. North Atlantic bluefin tuna and implications for management. Agribusiness 17:243-254.

Cheng, P.K. 2003. Personal communication. Canadian Western Trading Co.

Diop, H. 1999. Impact of Shrimp Imports on the United States' Southeastern Shrimp Processing Industry and Processed Shrimp Markets. Unpublished dissertation, Louisiana State University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

FAO. Various Years. FishStat. Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations, Rome, Italy.

Fong, Q.S.W. and J.L. Anderson. 2002. International shark fin markets and shark management: an integrated market preference-cohort analysis of the blacktip shark Carcharhinus limbatus. Ecological Economics 40:117-130.

Forsberg, O.I. 1996. Optimal stocking and harvesting of size-structured farmed Fish: a multi-period linear programming approach. Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 42:299-305.

Forsberg, O.I. 1999. Optimal harvesting of farmed Atlantic salmon at two cohort management strategies and different harvest operation restrictions. Aquaculture Economics and Management 3(2):143-158.

Haws, M. 2003. Personal communication. Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resource Center. Hawaii, USA.

Hean, R.L. 1994. An optimal management model for intensive aquaculture - an application in Atlantic salmon. The Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics 38:31-47.

Heaps, T. 1993. The optimal feeding of a farmed fish. Marine Resource Economics 8:89-99.

Heaps, T. 1995. Density dependent growth and the culling of farmed fish. Marine Resource Economics 10:285-198.

Hochman, E., P.S. Leung, L.R. Rowland and J. Wyban. 1990. Optimal scheduling in shrimp mariculture: a stochastic growing inventory problem. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 72(2):382-393.

Homans, F.R. and J.E. Wilen. 1997. A model of regulated open access resource use. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 32:1-21.

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