A Bioeconomic Analysis of Alternative Management Policies for the Fiji Long-line Fishery

Abstract

A bioeconomic model of Fiji's tuna longline fishery is developed to examine the effectiveness of management measures and to select an effective measure that increase biomass of the Fiji's target tuna species as well as generate high economic returns for the longline fishery. The study employs the use of a basic bioeconomic model, the Schaeffer Model and uses its methodology to conduct the analysis. The target species used in the bioeconomic model are Albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga), Bigeye tuna (Thunnus obesus) and Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) which are the commercially important species targeted by the longline fleet in Fiji. A sensitivity analysis is also carried out to address the uncertainties associated with variations in the intrinsic growth rates of the target species on biomass and the net present value. Six management scenarios were simulated in order to gauge the effectiveness of reducing effort levels and TAC on biomass and economic returns from the fishery. Of the management scenarios simulated, the most effective scenario resulting in increased biomass and a high net present value of the fishery was shown to be Scenario (II) a 25% reduction in the number of fishing days. On the analysis of the effectiveness of the current total allowable catch (Scenarios IV to VI) a reduction in TAC to 10,000MT combined with a 25% reduction in the number of fishing days resulted in increased biomass, whereas a reduction in TAC alone, resulted in high economic returns in terms of net present value. Policy implications are suggested.