Methods for Evaluating the Impacts of Fisheries on North Atlantic Ecosystems
Restoration of Overexploited Capture Fishery Resources:
An Economic/Ecosim Modeling Approach
Gordon Munro and Ussif Rashid SumailaAbstract
Given the current sorry state of most of the fisheries in the world’s marine ecosystems, it is appropriate to develop a restoration program for the world’s ecosystems. We extend modern fisheries economic theory to make it applicable to ecosystem analysis. The extended theory is then applied to explore a number of questions, including (i) to what extent is it worth restoring current ecosystems to their past states? (ii) What is the optimal approach path to the past ecosystem? Is it optimal to invest rapidly in restoring the ecosystem, or should investment proceed more slowly? Ecopath and Ecosim models form the ecological basis for our analysis, while we rely on economic valuation techniques to help us determine the economically feasible restoration plans and paths. In undertaking the valuations, emphasis will be placed on both market and non-market values.