The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution
Ecologists warn that the rapid evolution occurring as a result of high-intensity commercial fishing could have potentially disastrous economic and ecological effects. The evolution of economically relevant life-history traits in fish, which can occur due to the harvesting pressure from commercial fi...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Conference Object |
Language: | English unknown |
Published: |
North American Association of Fisheries Economists
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/vh53ww957 |
id |
ftoregonstate:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:vh53ww957 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftoregonstate:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:vh53ww957 2024-04-21T07:54:45+00:00 The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution Faig, Amanda D. https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/vh53ww957 English [eng] eng unknown North American Association of Fisheries Economists https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/vh53ww957 Copyright Not Evaluated Fisheries -- Economic aspects -- Congresses Sustainable fisheries -- Congresses Presentation ftoregonstate 2024-03-28T01:27:12Z Ecologists warn that the rapid evolution occurring as a result of high-intensity commercial fishing could have potentially disastrous economic and ecological effects. The evolution of economically relevant life-history traits in fish, which can occur due to the harvesting pressure from commercial fisheries, can irreversibly diminish fisheries yields and ecological services. I model the interactions between the genetics, population structure, and economics of the fishery in order to determine whether the economic implications of this rapid evolution (called fisheries-induced evolution or FIE) are as potentially consequential as ecologists predict. My model is based on North-East Arctic Cod, which are long lived and for which an abundance of information exists, including proof of FIE. I compare the steady state reached by a `myopic’ fishery manager who sets effort and mesh size policy while ignoring evolution, to one who dynamically optimizes his strategy with the knowledge of how evolution will respond. This paper shows that ignoring evolution may lead to some profit loss, but not likely the `catastrophic’ amount of loss predicted by biologists. While the value of the fishery is somewhat improved when evolution is accounted for, an important auxiliary benefit of accounting for evolution is that the fish stock is healthier, with a larger biomass and a more balanced age-structure. Thus while, in a narrow sense, accounting for the evolutionary effects of fishing may yield only modest gains in the present value of returns, there may be broader reasons for fisheries managers to adopt policies that incorporate knowledge of FIE. Conference Object Arctic cod ScholarsArchive@OSU (Oregon State University) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ScholarsArchive@OSU (Oregon State University) |
op_collection_id |
ftoregonstate |
language |
English unknown |
topic |
Fisheries -- Economic aspects -- Congresses Sustainable fisheries -- Congresses |
spellingShingle |
Fisheries -- Economic aspects -- Congresses Sustainable fisheries -- Congresses Faig, Amanda D. The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution |
topic_facet |
Fisheries -- Economic aspects -- Congresses Sustainable fisheries -- Congresses |
description |
Ecologists warn that the rapid evolution occurring as a result of high-intensity commercial fishing could have potentially disastrous economic and ecological effects. The evolution of economically relevant life-history traits in fish, which can occur due to the harvesting pressure from commercial fisheries, can irreversibly diminish fisheries yields and ecological services. I model the interactions between the genetics, population structure, and economics of the fishery in order to determine whether the economic implications of this rapid evolution (called fisheries-induced evolution or FIE) are as potentially consequential as ecologists predict. My model is based on North-East Arctic Cod, which are long lived and for which an abundance of information exists, including proof of FIE. I compare the steady state reached by a `myopic’ fishery manager who sets effort and mesh size policy while ignoring evolution, to one who dynamically optimizes his strategy with the knowledge of how evolution will respond. This paper shows that ignoring evolution may lead to some profit loss, but not likely the `catastrophic’ amount of loss predicted by biologists. While the value of the fishery is somewhat improved when evolution is accounted for, an important auxiliary benefit of accounting for evolution is that the fish stock is healthier, with a larger biomass and a more balanced age-structure. Thus while, in a narrow sense, accounting for the evolutionary effects of fishing may yield only modest gains in the present value of returns, there may be broader reasons for fisheries managers to adopt policies that incorporate knowledge of FIE. |
format |
Conference Object |
author |
Faig, Amanda D. |
author_facet |
Faig, Amanda D. |
author_sort |
Faig, Amanda D. |
title |
The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution |
title_short |
The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution |
title_full |
The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution |
title_fullStr |
The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Economic Cost of Ignoring Fishery Induced Evolution |
title_sort |
economic cost of ignoring fishery induced evolution |
publisher |
North American Association of Fisheries Economists |
url |
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/vh53ww957 |
genre |
Arctic cod |
genre_facet |
Arctic cod |
op_relation |
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/vh53ww957 |
op_rights |
Copyright Not Evaluated |
_version_ |
1796937167607431168 |