Nordic Marine
Think Tank
As a follow up to the NMTT project on FMSY fisheries management the project group has published a scientific article in 2020 in the ICES Journal of Marine Science magazine. . Henrik Sparholt, Bjarte Bogstad, Villy Christensen, Jeremy Collie, Rob van Gemert, Ray Hilborn, Jan Horbowy, Daniel Howell, Michael C Melnychuk, Søren Anker Pedersen, Claus Reedtz Sparrevohn, Gunnar Stefansson, Petur Steingrund. 2021. Estimating Fmsy from an ensemble of data sources to account for density dependence in Northeast Atlantic fish stocks, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Volume 78, Issue 1. Pages 55–69, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsaa175
The article develops the idea of including the so-called density dependent factors (e.g., that fish grow more slowly if the fish stock is large and there is less food to each individual fish) in the calculation of biological reference points. These guide managers in relation to setting fishing quotas and in evaluating whether a stock is overfished or not. Write to Henrik Sparholt (henrik.sparholt@gmail.com) if you want a copy of the article
NMTT Climate initiative
Climate change has already moved fish stocks from their traditional areas something we have also observed with certain fish stocks in the Nordic region. The fisheries and aquaculture sectors must prepare to adapt to these changes. Last year the NMTT began to work on a climate change vision which the NMTT Board recently reviewed.
While working on our climate change vision it became apparent that there is no Nordic public platform for fisheries and aquaculture organizations and interests to meet with ocean science with a view to discuss and advance the understanding of the impacts of climate change on their sectors. Against this background the NMTT has started a dialogue with the Nordic Council of Ministers about a potential program for how to address this. We look forward to over the coming month to be able to report in more details on this initiative.
Crew Payment Systems in Nordic Fisheries
Overall objectives of the work:
The work seeks to map out the fisher payment/salary systems in use in fisheries in Denmark, Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland and Norway, to collect and analyze pay evolution through time series, and to examine the existence and distribution of resource rent among fisher group participants i.e. fishing quota owners, vessel owners and fishermen hired on board fishing operations.
A distinction should be made between the different participating categories of fishers as deckhands/labour as well as employed skippers vs. owners of vessels and owners of quotas. Each of these distinct groups of fishing participants will face different motivation for pay, rent seeking, subsidization, etc. The work to be undertaken will seek to categorise these different groups, describe how they operate and get paid, and discuss how these different groups are motivated.
For fisheries policy makers the interest in such work rest in a better appreciation of 1) how the pay between the different fisher groups participating in fishing operations have evolved over the past couple of decades to track influences from changing fisheries management system, 2) to gain a better insight and understanding of incentive structure or motivation of fisheries participant groups and 3) to better appreciate how different fisheries management systems may give rise to different outcomes across countries and across fisheries participant groups due to pay system.
Such work will be able to shed light on the questions regarding WHO of the participating groups of fishers makes money in the fisheries and HOW the resource rent (if any) is distributed between participating groups.
How do different payment systems depend on or influence fisheries management and sustainability?
The NMTT coordinates the project which is financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Researchers from Greenland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway and Denmark take part in the project.