Managing fishing power: the case of Alaska red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus)

Because of concern about the inability to manage the Bristol Bay red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) fishery in Alaska and, in particular, to use in-season fishery performance to close the fishery at or near the preseason guideline harvest level, increasingly stringent pot limits were adopted to elongate the collapsing seasons. This paper provides a rigorous examination of the effect that pot limits had on season elongation and whether a redistribution of wealth occurred between large and small fishing vessels as a result of the policy. A simulation model of the fishery shows that pot limits did not elongate the season sufficiently to improve in-season management. Moreover, the policy allowed vessels to capture efficiency gains arising from an industry-wide reduction in fishing capacity. Both vessel size classes benefited from mutual gear reduction in all years except 1992. Redistribution of wealth was found to occur only in one year of the five years examined.