Understanding the economic and biological status of a fishery resource is critical to designing efficient management policies. In one such attempt, this article assesses current and potential rents in the sole fishery in the English Channel. The sole fishery is found to experience rent dissipation due to significant disinvestment in the stock and substantial fleet overcapacity. The analysis also investigates alternative paths of attaining the optimal stock level.

Although failures and successes in fisheries management are related to decision making processes, these are rarely analyzed in detail and even less often following quantitative or semi-quantitative approaches. Herein, we study the decision making process for Chile's most important fisheries using a binary decision model. This model evaluates the probability that an annual total allowable catch (TAC) will or will not be modified by the National Fisheries Council (NFC) based on biological, economic, and social factors.

We estimate the technical efficiency gains of introducing individual quotas (IQs) in fisheries. Our estimates are based on two samples of vessels, considering a potential self-selection bias and controlling for quality changes in landings induced by the IQ system. The results suggest that the introduction of IQs has an important positive impact on fleet efficiency, and that properly measuring this impact requires controlling for the self-selection bias and quality changes induced by the regulatory shift.

We study the economic performance of Benthic Resource Management Areas (BRMAs) in central-southern Chile. The analysis considers 26 managed areas with Agreements of Use declaring Chilean abalone (Concholepas concholepas) to be the main exploited benthic resource from 2001 to 2003. Our analysis explores the role played by several characteristics thought to be potential BRMA performance determinants. These variables were defined and grouped into four types: economic, environmental–biological, institutional–organizational, and organizational leader.