The
ninth Annual Conference of the European Association of Fisheries Economists
(EAFE) was held in the Pole universitaire Pierre-Jekez Helias, Quimper,
France from 28-30 April 1997. The conference was jointly organized by the
Centre for Law and Economics of the Sea (CEDEM) of the University of Western
Brittany and the Fisheries Science Laboratory of the National Superior Agronomic
School of Rennes.
The
three-day gathering began with the President of the University of Western
Brittany M. Jean Claude Bodere and Philip Rodgers, the then President of
EAFE welcoming the delegates. After which the EAFE annual general meeting
(AGM) was held. An important function of the AGM was electing a new Bureau
of officials to run the association. In the AGM it was also decided that
the venue of the next EAFE conference would be Hague in the Netherlands.
The
conference was divided into three sessions. The theme of the first session
was Fisheries Management, regulation of access to the resources and conflicts
of use. The first session began in the afternoon of the 28th April.
The keynote speech Alternatives in Fisheries management was delivered
by Professor Parzival Copes of Simon Frazer University, Canada. He examined
the efficiency of output-focused ITQ regimes and input-focused limited entry
licensed regimes noting in particular the extent to which these systems
alleviate old externalities and create new ones. He concluded that choosing
a management regime for a fishery should be done in relation to the specifics
of the fishery and the fisheries policy objectives that have been selected.
Erik Buisman and Pavel Salz presented a paper entitled Scenario analysis:
exploring the future of fisheries, in which they describe the techniques
of scenario building and presented a scenario study on the future of North
Sea fisheries. Tom Sanderson presented The economic case for charging
for licenses or quotas. Pierre Failler answered the question Does
co-management resolve all fisheries problems? Jan Willem de Wilde compared
the Mediterranean and Atlantic fisheries management regimes. Jean-Luc
Prat and Denis Bailly looked at the case of the Norman-Breton gulf
to illustrate the conflicts of access to the resources. Keeping to
the theme, Philippe Le Rhun presented Midwater trawling within the 12
nautical mile area as a (more) recent conflict in the south of the Glenan
islands. David Whitmarsh and Helen Pickering presented a joint-paper
on Commercial exploitation of artificial reefs: economic opportunities
and management imperatives. Using a simple bioeconomic model, the paper
illustrated the implication of creating an open access reef-based commercial
fishery and discussed range of management techniques that can be used overcome
the open access problems. Comanagement and the dynamics of fisheries:
some issues was the next topic presented by Claude Rioux, and Susana
Cabrera Teto concluded the first day's session with a paper entitled Cooperation
in the management of the fisheries resources. In the evening the delegates
were invited to a welcome reception at the city hall by the Mayor of Quimper.
This provided a perfect opportunity to meet new friends and renew old acquaintances.
The
next morning saw more papers on the previous day's theme. Catherine Robinson
presented a joint paper on Fisher behaviour: exploring the validity of
the profit maximization assumption. Ramos Franquesa examined Economic
evaluation of the demersal Spanish trawl fishery in the Gulf of Lion. Measuring
the economic results of small-scale fisheries was the paper presented
by Jean Boncoeur and Denis Bailly. Their work was based on the case of
French inshore fishing in the western part of the English Channel. Philip
Rodgers and Philip Bertram presented A method of indicating the comparative
dispersion of national fleet revenue in mixed fisheries. M. Augusto
Lopez Martinez, Ana Maria Juarez Davila and Enrique Pescador Canora presented
a paper entitled An application of the fishing economic model ECOPES
on the Atlantic hake fishery. Sean Pascoe presented a joint paper entitled
Modelling the UK component of the English Channel fisheries: an application
of multiobjective programming. Rui Junqueira Lopes looked at Bioeconomic
management of red swamp crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) in the presence of
environmental externalities. Olivier Guyader presented a paper entitled
Individual quotas as a management tool and systemic modelling: an application
to the French albacore fishery.
Following
lunch, the second session began with a new theme: sea products markets.
Hussain Rasheed Hassan presented a paper on International trade on tuna
commodities. Using trade indices the paper investigates the evolution
of tuna commodity trade among the main players. Measuring and characterizing
intra-European trade of seafood products was the topic of the paper
presented by Pascal Bernard. Marius 0. van Wijk presented a paper entitled
Fish processing in the Netherlands: limitations to growth. He estimated
that the Netherlands domestic market for fish products to be about 400 million
ECU at wholesale level and indicated the existence of growth opportunities
in wholesale distribution and importing. Catherine Mariojouls talked about
Recent evolutions in the fisheries chain in France. Total quality of
seafood products was the topic of the paper presented by A. Honkanen,
P. Mickwitz, M. Juvankovski and J. Setala. They looked at the quality
of rainbow trout fillets according to wholesalers and retailers. Antonio
Ruiz gave a talk about Strategies of the fishing industry in the Andaluz
Mediterranean Sea. The talk had a special reference to the strategies
of marketing. Ola Flaaten concluded the day's session with Norwegian
household's consumption of salmon and other fish products.
After
a busy day, in the afternoon the delegates were bussed to the fishing harbour
and the historic city of Concarneau. The delegates visited a local fish
processor and a shipyard where they were informed about the local fishing
industry. A visit was also made to the local fishery museum, before the
delegates were bussed the short distance to the venue of the welcome reception
given by the Mayor of Concarneau. After aperitifs and civic hospitality
it was time for the conference dinner. The venue was the restaurant La
coquille near the fishing harbour. Conversation flowed freely throughout
the evening. The fish option seemed to be the favourite, the other option
being beef!
The
morning of the last day of the conference saw more on sea products markets
A. Honkanen, J. Setala and P. Mickwitz started the day with a paper entitled
Finnish consumers fish consumption behaviours. They indicated that
the Finnish consumers have a positive attitude towards fish and in 1992
almost all households consumed fish in some form, although they generally
favoured processed products. JeanPierre Boude, Jose Perez Agundez and Abdelhak
Nassiri's paper on The price formation of hake at Pasajes auction
investigates the variables which influence the price formation and the price
variability using econometric methods. Shabbar Jaffry presented a joint
paper on Price flexibilities for quota and non-quota species in the UK.
The paper using a co-integration systems approach estimates the own
and cross-price flexibilities for a range of quota and non quota species
important to the English Channel fisheries. Christophe Bene concluded the
session with a paper entitled Storage and viability of a fishery with
resource and market dephased seasonalities.
A
change in topic for session 3 brought the conference to aquaculture and
fishing activities in the context of coastal management. The keynote
speech entitled Fishing activities and coastal management: A public policy
approach was given by Professor David Fluharty of University of Washington
at Seattle, USA. After lunch, Herman Bardarsson and Knut Heen presented
a paper entitled Regional employment impact of fish resource utilization
from the Brent Sea. Nicole Piriou and Jean-Ren Couliou talked about
South Brittany facing the changes in the fishing industry. Chris
Reid and John Slaymaker presented a preliminary analysis of their
study on The importance of British fishing ports, 1958-1993. They
concluded that the long run changes in the relative importance of Britain's
fishing ports are significantly more subtle and complex than has been supposed.
Eva Roth and Susan Jensen presented a paper on The economic impact of
commercializing recreational fisheries. This was a case study on
fishing tourism in the Country of Southern Jutland, Denmark. Aquaculture
and economic development in the Mediterranean islands was the topic
covered by Philippe Paquou and Denis Lacroix. Leila Temri presented a paper
entitled Location of aquaculture activities in the Mediterranean sea:
the case of seabass farming and Denis Bailly and Caroline Callies concluded
the session with a paper entitled The value of coastal water productivity:
the case of oyster farming in Merennes-Oleron. The closing address was
given by the new President of EAFE Pavel Salz.
Overall,
Quimper 97 was a huge success which the delegates enjoyed immensely. Thanks
are due to the organizers for hosting such a successful gathering.
Hussein Hassan
CEMARE
