A Bioeconomic Model For Determining The Optimal Timing Of Harvest For The North Carolina Bay Scallop Fishery

The fish population can be viewed as a capital stock that, like `conventional' or man-made capital, is capable of yielding a consumption flow through time. The management problem thus becomes one of selecting an optimal consumption path, or harvest path, through time. The purposes of this paper are (1) to present a general harvesting model that can be used to address the problem of when to open and close the harvest season for a seasonal (intermittent) fishery, (2) to apply the model to the North Carolina bay scallop fishery, and (3) to incorporate uncertainty into the manager's decision process using simulation and stochastic dominance rules. Grant no. NA83AA-D-00012