Increasing value through gear flexibility: A case study of U.S. West Coast Sablefish

This paper explores the potential economic gains of allowing additional flexibility in gear-choice, within rights-based management programs. A case study of U.S. West Coast sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) provides an example of a commercially important species where gear-switching is currently occurring within the IFQ program, allowing us to isolate the economic potential of gear flexibility along two important margins: size and quality. We conduct a hedonic price analysis of ex-vessel prices using panel fish ticket data and linear mixed-effect econometric models to examine the influences of gear, size, condition, fishing sector, port group, landing month and year on the price of sablefish. We generate a counter-factual scenario that represents the IFQ fishery where the use of fixed-gear is prohibited, by predicting what the size-composition of catch would have been if the sablefish had been caught with trawl gear. We find that the flexibility of targeting sablefish with fixed gear between 2011-2016 generated an annual average 10.45% increase in total revenue, or $1.17M, compared to the trawl-only scenario. These results show sablefish value increases through implementing gear flexibility, which contributes to a broader conversation of allocative efficiency.