Individual quotas, fishing effort allocation, and over-quota discarding in mixed fisheries

Many fisheries are managed by total allowable catches (TACs) and a substantial part by individual quotas. Such output management has not been successful in mixed fisheries when fishers continue to fish while discarding marketable fish. We analyse the effects of individual quotas on spatial and temporal effort allocation and over-quota discarding in a multispecies fishery. Using a spatially explicit dynamic-state variable model, the optimal fishing strategy of fishers constrained by annual individual quotas, facing uncertainty in catch rates, is studied. Individual fishers will move away from areas with high catches of the restricted quota species and, depending on the cost of fishing, will stop fishing in certain periods of the year. Individual vessels will discard marketable fish, but only after their individual quota for the species under consideration has been reached. These results are in line with observations on effort allocation and discarding of marketable fish, both over-quota discarding and highgrading, by the Dutch beam-trawl fleet. The models we present can be used to predict the outcomes of management and are therefore a useful tool for fisheries scientists and managers.