Atlantic Salmon Fishery in the Baltic Sea – A Case of Trivial Cooperation

• Main Authors: Kulmala, Soile, Levontin, Polina, Lindroos, Marko, Pintassilgo, Pedro
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Unknown 2010
• Subjects: Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies; Atlantic salmon; bioeconomic model; coalition formation; partition function; sharing rules; stability analysis
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.59094; https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/59094

This paper analyses the management of the Atlantic salmon stocks in the Baltic Sea through a coalition game in the partition function form. The signs of economic and biological over-exploitation of these salmon stocks over the last two decades indicate that cooperation among the harvesting countries, under the European Union's Common Fisheries Policy, has been superficial. Combining a two-stage game of four asymmetric players with a comprehensive bioeconomic model, we conclude that cooperation under the Relative Stability Principle is not a stable outcome. In contrast, the equilibrium of the game is non-cooperation. The paper also addresses the possibility of enhancing cooperation through more flexible fishing strategies. The results indicate that partial cooperation is stable under a specific sharing scheme. It is also shown that substantial economic benefits could have been realised by reallocating the fishing effort.