Fishery management of straddling stocks is conditional on available knowledge about relevant environmental shocks, such as El Niño events, affecting stock behavior. But knowledge of these issues is scant, particularly in developing world fisheries. Using per-trip, geo-referenced data for the period 1994–2004, we test the hypothesis that sea surface temperature anomalies related to El Niño events have systematically induced the Chilean fleet exploiting the Chilean (straddling) jack mackerel stock to fish beyond the 200-nm zone more frequently and farther south (than its traditional fishing grounds) than in the absence of El Niño. We take this as an indirect testing of El Niño-triggered effects on the spatial distribution of the Chilean straddling jack mackerel stock in the southeast Pacific. While measuring environmental variability, we also control for regulatory regime shifts, fleet technology features, and seasonal and price effects. Our estimation results clearly support the stated hypothesis.

JEL Codes: Q22, C23, C25.

In an already large, complex Japanese seafood market, demand for ecolabeled seafood can vary across consumer segments in a way that may have important implications for marketing strategies for sustainable seafood. In contrast to previous studies of consumers' willingness to pay for ecolabeled seafood, this article analyzes retailers' best pricing strategy when consumer preferences for ecolabeled seafood are heterogeneous. An auction experiment involving consumers in Tokyo is analyzed with a latent class model to estimate variation in willingness to pay, differentiated by consumer characteristics. Results show that there is heterogeneity in price premiums, implying that representative consumer estimates are misleading. Further, higher premiums are not easily associated with observable demographic factors or high willingness to pay for the unlabeled product, leading to a complex pricing problem for retailers who wish to capture maximum revenue through price pairs for unlabeled seafood and seafood bearing an ecolabel for sustainability.

JEL Codes: Q22, C14, C93, D12.

A priority for the new Common Fishery Policy will be to enhance the competitiveness of EU aquaculture in compliance with high standards of consumer protection, animal welfare, and environmental sustainability. Consumer expectations in relation to food quality present new business opportunities for EU aquaculture producers who are willing to differentiate their products. In particular, new convenience formats and certification labels are likely to influence consumer choices. This study uses the choice experiment method to investigate consumer preferences and willingness to pay for new convenient formats and certification labels for oysters. Cross-sectional data were collected through a web-based consumer survey carried out in Italy in 2015. The main result of the study is that certification labels are decisively more effective than new convenient preparation formats to differentiate high-quality products. However, some heterogeneity was detected in consumer preferences.

JEL Codes: Q11, Q18, Q22, Q28.

The difference between the concepts of profit and rent are discussed theoretically and by using aggregated data from the Icelandic and Norwegian fish harvesting industries. The former is a basic indicator for gauging the business performance of firms and industries, and the latter is important for the evaluation of the economic welfare contribution of resources and industries. The importance of distinguishing between profit and rent is greater for fisheries under strict management control, such as those with quotas and licenses, than those with more open access. It was found that profit is lower than rent in both countries. Policy implications are discussed.

JEL Codes: Q22, Q28.

Diseases are an important challenge in aquaculture. However, most of what is known about the effect of diseases comes from laboratory experiments. Using a farm-level data set containing sea lice infestation counts for all Norwegian salmon farms over an 84-month period, we empirically investigate the biological and economic impacts of observed levels of infective lice. Sea lice, a common ectoparasitic copepod of salmonids, have been shown to reduce fish growth and appetite and cause substantial costs to salmon farmers worldwide. Our results suggest that the percent of total biomass growth lost per production cycle due to average infestations varies from 3.62 to 16.55%, despite control, and depends on farm location. Using a discrete harvesting model, we simulate the economic impact on farm profits over typical cycles. An average infestation over a typical central region spring-release cycle generates damages of US$0.46 per kg of harvested biomass, equivalent to 9% of farm revenues. We estimate that lice parasitism produced US$436m in damages to the Norwegian industry in 2011.

JEL Code: Q22, C23.