Fishery Performance Indicators (FPIs) and Production Analysis: What Works Before and After the Ban of Cantrang Trawl Fishing in the Java Sea–Indonesia

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2019The Fishery Performance Indicator (FPI) and production analysis are used to asses and evaluate the impacts of a partial ban on performance of the Cantrang -a modified Danish seine that targets demersal species and squid- in the Java Sea. The goal of the ban was to limit ecological impacts of fishing by limiting effort. Although called a “ban”, 46% of the vessels were reissued permits to fish shortly after total prohibition. We find that there is no improvement in the ecological outcome after the implementation of the ban, as the proxy data shows declining catch per trip of almost all harvested species. The ban reduced the supply of key fish species, resulting in price increases that benefitted the fishermen, but with increased price volatility. High scores for metrics of local labor participation and involvement to the fishery, as well as the better wage of local crews, skippers, and workers compared to other similar occupations during the post-ban, indicate the ban benefited the community of the primary port. Despite the fleet reduction, employment decreases arising from the ban were much smaller, as it coincided with 30% increases in crew sizes. This was driven primarily by an increase in the portion of the fleet with onboard freezers, which require more packing and sorting labor, but facilitate longer trips. Controlling for prices, production models suggest the increase in crew size accounted for 90% of the increase in revenue, which reveal a significant revenue increased at post-ban because of the substantial effect of the crew, while the GT size and trip length contributing only 8% increase of the revenue