Many of the world's fisheries face major challenges including overfishing, overcapacity and low returns. Using recent developments in microeconomic theory and with numerous case studies and examples, this book shows how to measure efficiency, productivity, profitability, capacity of fishing fleets and how to improve fisheries management. The book will prove invaluable to researchers, students and professionals interested in understanding the problems in fisheries and how they may be overcome.

Designed to fulfill the maximum balance between the biological and economic requirements of fisheries. Compares optimal fishing to unregulated fishing. Presents three popular fishing models and the problems arising from random fluctuations in fish stocks. Discusses the political and socio-economic factors which determine the success or failure of management policies.

Under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (FCMA), managers are required to use the "best scientific information available" in the preparation of federal fishery management plans (National Standard 2 in the FCMA). However, the Act provides no further guidance as to how conformance to this standard should be determined. Because adherence to this standard has often been contentious, Congress has considered adding a definition for what constitutes "best scientific information available" in the reauthorization of the FCMA. This report examines both the current application and the controversy over the standard and concludes that a legislative definition would be too inflexible to accommodate regional differences and future advances in science and technology. Instead, the report recommends that NOAA Fisheries adopt procedural guidelines to ensure that the scientific information used in the development of fishery management plans is relevant and timely and is the product of processes characterized by inclusiveness, transparency and openness, timeliness, and peer review.

Using developments in microeconomic theory and with numerous case-studies and examples, this book shows how to measure efficiency, productivity, profitability and capacity of fishing fleets and how to improve fisheries management. It is useful for those interested in understanding the problems in fisheries and how they may be overcome.