Abstract:
Possible means of rehabilitating the manY depleted fisheries in European
waters now form a topic of great interest and relevance. This paper uses
bioeconomic analysis to predict returns for the Irish Sea Nephrops fishery
from rationalisation through three types of management regulations. These
regulation measures are (a) decommissioning. i.e., reducing fleet size, (b)
catch quotas while maintaining fleet size, and (c) mesh size regulation. The
analysis clearly demonstrates the gains to be obtained from rationalising
the Nephrops fishery. In addition. socio-economic implications of performance
of the fisheries compared to potential profitability is extremely poor. Substantially
improved returns would result frmn strong management control.
However, trying to preserve social equity, while theoretically possible, would
necessitate complicated cunstraints to the operation of the management system.
