Economic incentives to target species and fish size: prices and fine-scale product attributes in Norwegian fisheries

Improved fisheries management provides fishers with more opportunities to maximize harvest value by accounting for valuable attributes of the harvest such as species, harvest timing, fish size, product form, and landing location. Harvest values can also vary by vessel and gear type. Moreover, the extent of targeting can influence the ecosystem in which the fishers operate and provide important management challenges. We utilize a unique dataset containing daily vessel-level fish landings in one region of Norway in 2010 to investigate the value of an array of attributes, including species, product form, product condition, timing, fish size, vessel type, gear type, and landing location for cod and other whitefish species, as well as king crab. We also investigate to what extent landed value differs across different communities, firms, and plants. The results indicate substantial variation for all attributes, highlighting opportunities for fishers as well as potential management challenges. For whitefish, the species landed accounts for three-quarters of the variation in prices. For cod in particular, the fish size accounts for nearly all variation in prices. In these fisheries, market conditions justify management focus on the biological composition of the catch.