Biological information, profitability of fisheries and lease and asset prices for ITQs in Iceland

• Main Author: Danielsson, Asgeir
• Format: Report
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade
• Subjects: Fisheries > Economic aspects > Congresses; Sustainable fisheries > Congresses; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/hh63sx06s

Fisheries economists have studied fisheries managed with ITQs and compared them to fisheries that are differently managed. Most of these studies have found ITQs to be economically superior. This paper studies the ITQ-fisheries in Iceland. It focuses on features that are difficult to explain using traditional fisheries economics. It is shown that lease prices for quotas are extremely high compared to the profitability of the fisheries. The persistence of this state of affairs reveals reluctance to exit from the fisheries. The paper discusses also predictions from traditional fisheries economics concerning correlation between prices of quotas and size of the stocks. It is shown that some of these predictions are not valid in the Icelandic case. This reveals some scepticism (or ignorance) among fishermen about the predictions of bioeconomic models, especially the biological part of these models. Whoever is right, this scepticism does matter for the efficiency of policies. The ITQ-system makes it possible to measure and test the behaviour of fishing firms in economic terms. What this paper reveals about Icelandic fishing firms is probably present in other fisheries as well. There are even reasons to expect that they are less important in Iceland than they are elsewhere. KEYWORDS: ITQ-fisheries, Future Paths for Rights Based Fisheries Management, Fisheries economics, Price of quota shares, Biological information, Lease price of quotas, Profitability