Sport and Commercial Fishing Allocations for the Atlantic Salmon Fisheries of the Miramichi River

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie
• Main Authors: Cook, B. A., McGaw, R. L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1996
• Subjects: Economics and Econometrics; Agronomy and Crop Science; Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology; Global and Planetary Change; Canada; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7976.1996.tb00191.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1744-7976.1996.tb00191.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1744-7976.1996.tb00191.x

The Atlantic salmon has been harvested by both commercial and recreational fishers for many years on the river systems of the province of New Brunswick on Canada 's Atlantic coast. The commercial fisheries were closed and controls were placed on the recreational fisheries following the 1983 collapse of the salmon stocks. This management policy remains in effect. A preliminary analysis using a linear control model showed this to be an economically efficient harvest allocation policy on New Brunswick's Miramichi River. The analysis is extended to the more realistic nonlinear framework here to determine whether the harvest allocation decision would be significantly changed. Both fisheries are found to generate positive net economic benefits, although the recreational fishery is determined to be more valuable than the commercial fishery. Permanent closure of the commercial fishery is not indicated.