Fishery participation and location choice model: the West Coast salmon troll commercial fishery

Random utility models have been widely used to model spatial choice within fisheries, but less attention has been paid to modeling participation and movement between fisheries. Fishers may switch fisheries in response to time closures or changes in profitability potentially creating management implications for those fisheries, as well as the fishery with the closure. We used a random utility maximization framework to model participation, fishery choice, and location choice for a large fleet of West Coast salmon trollers, many of which also participate in other fisheries. We used the model to demonstrate substitution effects across fisheries due to spatial policies implemented in the salmon fishery. Our work suggests that spatial management of a single fishery needs to take into consideration fishers' full choice set to predict behavioral responses to spatial policies. Our analysis also provides insights into how fishers construct multifishery harvest strategies that enable them to more fully use capital or adjust to closures or changes in relative profitability.

Automated summary

This study used a random utility maximization framework to model the behavior of fishermen in terms of participation, fishery choice, and location choice. The study demonstrated substitution effects across fisheries due to spatial policies implemented in the salmon fishery. It suggests that spatial management of a single fishery needs to consider fishermen's full choice set in order to predict their behavioral responses to spatial policies. The analysis also provides insights into how fishermen construct multifishery harvest strategies.