Identifying overexploitation in the coastal Greenland halibut fishery in the Disko Bay using static bioeconomic modelling

• Published in: Fisheries Research
• Main Author: Fredenslund, Theresa
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Fisheries economics; Greenland; Coastal fisheries; Bioeconomic modelling; Halibut; Overexploitation; Tac; Disko Bay; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://curis.ku.dk/portal/da/publications/identifying-overexploitation-in-the-coastal-greenland-halibut-fishery-in-the-disko-bay-using-static-bioeconomic-modelling(680f61fc-cab8-4a4d-80a6-bdc4937afff3).html; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2022.106417; https://curis.ku.dk/ws/files/321973465/Identifying_overexploitation_in_the_coastal_Greenland_halibut_fishery_in_the_Disko_Bay_using_static_bioeconomic_modelling_Elsevier_Enhanced_Reader.pdf

The North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) has continuously lowered their advice regarding the Total Allowed Catch (TAC) for the coastal Greenland halibut fisheries in Western Greenland. This is due to concerns of overexploitation of the fishery. This paper investigates how the fishing intensity in the fishery for Greenland halibut (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides) in the Disko Bay, Greenland, affects the current and future income opportunities of coastal fishers. Through bio-economic modelling, I find presence of economic overexploitation of the Greenland halibut fish stock in the Disko Bay. Specifically, the actual Greenland halibut stock in 2019 is found to constitute only 56 pct. of the economic optimal stock size in the baseline scenario. The actual profit is almost 40 million DKK lower than the optimal profit due to higher costs of harvesting, which arise because the actual stock size is lower than the optimal and because of a suboptimal split of the TAC between vessels (above 6 m in length) and boats (6 m or below in length) in the fishery. The results presented in this article show that there is significant scope for economic optimization of the coastal Greenland halibut fishery through a temporary reduction in harvest of Greenland halibut to regenerate the stock to its optimal size and a transfer of TAC from the boat segment to the vessel segment. Notably, this article does not find that the stock of Greenland halibut in the Disko Bay is further decreasing at current (2019) harvest levels, however, this finding is contingent on the length of the data series used for the estimation of the growth model.