Browse by Author > Murillas-Maza Arantza

The aim of this paper is to analyse the economic performance of Basque and French purse seiner tuna fisheries in open oceans exploitation through taking into account spatial and inter-temporal dimensions. In particular, a cost-benefit analysis of different mitigation measures, MM, will be developed with special emphasis on the deployed of eco-FADs by purse seiners.

A CBA informs the decision-making process by estimating the Net Present Value (NPV) of the different MM.  The purpose is to determine whether the different MM create or not additional surplus or value for fishers (marginal benefit – marginal cost). The first step in a CBA is to identify and quantify all relevant costs (incl. opportunity costs) and benefits of the different MM. The NPV is then found as the sum of the discounted flows of costs and benefits over the lifespan of the MM. The risk or uncertainty of the variables entering a CBA will affect the precision of the estimated expected NPV. It is therefore important to consider the effects of risk and uncertainty.

This paper also analyses the different contribution to the economic sustainability when fishing is around Fish Aggregation Devices (FADs) instead of free-swimming schools. FADs are increasingly used by tuna purse-seine fleets all around the world and the contribution or not to the economic sustainability could be considered to be an important determinant factor for policy makers and fishers.