Co-management of a high-value species with territorial use rights for fisheries: a spatial bioeconomic approach with environmental variability
Victor Gerardo Vargas-López, Francisco Arreguín-Sánchez, José Luis Gutiérrez-González, Juan Carlos Seijo
Abalone
is a high-value resource that is an important export market fishery of
Mexico that is managed through territorial use rights for fisheries
allocated to a coastal community. A specific age-structured spatial
bioeconomic model was applied to this fishery to undertake stock
recovery to target levels. The model incorporates uncertainty in the
parameter k of a von Bertalanffy growth function with
environmental variability. The risk of falling below and exceeding the
target and bioeconomic limit reference points of the population with
alternative fisheries management strategies was studied using a Monte
Carlo analysis. The management strategy evaluation showed that Emin (minimum effort) and EmaxNPV (resource rent maximization effort) generated higher biomass levels and higher present value of resource rent than Emsy (effort in maximum sustainable yield) at the end of the simulation
period, regardless of the bioeconomic reference points and assuming a
reduction in fishing effort. Emin and EmaxNPV increased and maximized the present value of resource rent generated by
the species while avoiding its overexploitation. The social consequences
of the management strategies were considered with the participation of
fishers of this co-managed fishery.