Modelling the Grand Banks commercial fishing fleet: Fleet structure, fishing performance and economic viability

Abstract

The Grand Banks commercial fishing industry has been faced with several crises in the past decades. These crises have included the major financial crunch and inflation of the late 1970s and early 1980s, as well as the resources collapse of the Northern cod stock and other groundfish stocks in the 1990s followed by the foreign fishing disputes of the mid 1990s. The thesis examines the evolution of the fishing industry in Atlantic Canada during these critical years with focus on the fisheries of the Grand Banks. A linear programming model of the configuration of the Grand Banks commercial fishing fleet is formulated to describe the post 2000 period. The model is driven using the results of an extensive analysis of historical records for this recent period. The model results are validated by comparing them with historical average annual data over the period 2000-2005. The linear programming model is run under several scenarios emulating changes in government policy and economic conditions affecting the harvesting sector. Based on the results, alternative fishing fleet configurations for the Grand Banks fishery are defined to improve the economic viability of the fishing fleet. The model pointed to changes in fleet configuration including a rationalization of the shrimp and crab fleets and a shift to longline vessels with higher-valued product for groundfish harvesting. Once implemented, these suggestions would advance the goals of the new "Oceans to Plate" approach to fisheries management recently announced by Fisheries and Oceans, Canada.