The Issue
In simple terms the issue of overcapacity is the
presence of too many vessels - or excessive
capacity - in a growing number of fisheries.
Excessive fishing capacity makes overfishing
possible and may therefore lead to degradation of
fishery resources, and to dissipation of food
production potential. From the point of view of
society as a whole overcapacity equals economic
waste, a situation that is compounded when
overfishing occurs.
Fishing capacity is the ability of a stock of
inputs (capital) used in fisheries to produce
output, measured as either effort (or indicators of
effort) or catch. Thus, fishing capacity is the
ability of a vessel or fleet of vessels or a set of
gear to catch fish. This ability fluctuates
depending on the status (or volume) of the fish
stock being exploited; e.g. daily capacity of a
vessel is often higher at the beginning of a season
than at its end. However, the terms 'fishing
capacity' and 'overcapacity' generally refers to
the situation over a longer period - usually at
least a fishing season. Overcapacity (or excess
capacity) may be defined as capacity in excess of
the (desired) stock of inputs that will produce a
desired level of outputs (e.g., a set of target
fishing mortality rates for the species being
harvested) and will best achieve the objectives of
a fishery management plan (e.g., minimizing
costs).
If market demand has pushed up the price of fish
beyond the point where marginal revenue exceeds
marginal costs, and where there is no incentive to
capture the fish as efficiently as possible (from
the point of view of society) but where there
exists an incentive to harvest the fish before
anyone else does so, then there will be a tendency
in the fishery towards a build up of excessive
harvesting capacity and consequently a growing risk
of overfishing. Excess harvesting capacity may take
the form of any combination of people, fishing gear
and fishing vessels. Excessive harvesting capacity
adds to the pressure to overfish because, if a
fisher has the opportunity to utilise idle
capacity, which is at little or no extra cost, the
marginal gains of catching additional fish by doing
so are relatively great.
In many fisheries around the world, the absence
of clearly defined and defensible rights that
effectively limit the catch has meant that fishing
capacity has developed well in excess of the
capacity needed to sustainably exploit fisheries
resources available for harvesting.
Possible solutions
The origin of overcapacity is free and open
access to wild fish stocks. To date fishery
administrations have tended to try to control the
growth of fishing capacity either by limiting the
use of 'inputs' (limited entry schemes) or by
placing a limit on 'output' (often referred to as
'quota' schemes); that is by placing an upper limit
on the volume of landings permitted, by vessel
and/or by fishery.
Directly limiting fishing inputs has had limited
success as there is a tendency to expand capacity
by improving the elements of fishing effort that
have not been restricted. To remedy this, fisheries
managers must keep constantly abreast of technical
developments that effectively increase fishing
effort and make appropriate adjustments to the
restrictions imposed on the fishery. Experience
indicates that this is often most effectively
achieved in the context of co-management by
government with the industry.
There has been an increasing move towards
directly limiting the catch of each fishing company
or individual fisher through the use of quotas,
which shifts the incentive structure away from
racing to catch fish before others do so, and
towards harvesting, in the most efficient manner
the fish that have been made available. Making
these rights transferable increases the possibility
of efficient use of fisheries inputs, reducing
fishing capacity to a level that accords with the
quantity of fish available for harvesting.
Not all fisheries are amenable to quota
management, either for social and cultural reasons
or because of the multi-species nature of the
fishery.
Recent action
Overcapacity has been recognised as a problem by
most fishing nations. A growing number of
countries, such as Argentina, Chile, Japan, New
Zealand, Peru and the European Union, have adopted
fleet reduction programmes.
Delegates of some 120 countries, meeting under
the auspices of the FAO's Committee on Fisheries in
1999, expressed their concern about "overfishing of
the world's major marine fishery resources,
destructive and wasteful fishing practices and
excess capacity" and adopted an International Plan
of Action (IPOA) for the Management of Fishing
Capacity. The objective of the IPOA is to achieve
"an efficient, equitable and transparent management
of fishing capacity" to be implemented within the
framework of the FAO's Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries.
Outlook
The FAO estimated that the world fishing fleet
numbered about 3.8 million vessels in 1995 of which
about 1.2 million were decked vessels. There were
between 43,000 and 45,000 vessels of 100 gross
registered tonnage or more in 1997. This part of
the global fleet had grown until 1991 but has
declined since then, and a further drop in the
number of large fishing vessels over the next few
years is expected.
The reduction of fishing capacity in some
countries has been achieved by relocating vessels
in the fisheries of other countries or in high seas
fisheries, thus not contributing to a global
reduction of fishing capacity. Effectively
controlling fishing capacity on the high seas is
likely to be protracted because of the essentially
open access nature of high seas fishing.
Significant reductions of fishing capacity in
highly populous and least developed countries is
likely to be slow due to pressing social factors
which make capacity reductions difficult to
achieve.
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