LAUSR

AbstractIn 2011, management of the limited-entry groundfish trawl fishery on the Pacific coast switched from a system of vessel entry restrictions, gear restrictions, seasonal closures, and bimonthly catch limits to an individual fishing quota (IFQ) program. In addition to advancing a profitable and efficient groundfish fishery, the Pacific Fishery Management Council’s objectives for the IFQ program included minimizing the adverse effects on fishing communities and promoting measurable economic and employment benefits. We developed counterfactual revenues and costs for the fleet and used an input–output model to estimate the change in income and employment for the West Coast as a whole and for 12 different port areas. Our results indicated that alternative assumptions regarding the distribution of quota payments substantially changed conclusions about the economic impacts of the IFQ program. Under an assumption that payments to lease quota were distributed to homeports of vessels reporting revenue from th...