Achievement of the economic and ecological goals of rights-based management programs in fisheries depends on trading activity and the ability of the market to facilitate trading, a market that is assumed to function on basic economic principles. These markets are unique in several ways, however, particularly in that each is tied to an unpredictable resource base, is initiated and structured by a variety of agencies with distinct protocols, and?in many cases?is affected by a deeply rooted social and cultural system among the fishermen. These factors ensure that such markets are inherently variable, contribute to the riskiness of the industry and complicate fishermen decisions. This study will use approaches from economics, exchange networks, and anthropology to examine the market for trap certificates, a program used to manage the Florida spiny lobster trap fishery, to evaluate the boundaries of the theoretical framework as applied to rights-based fisheries management. Historical transactions in a market for rights to operate in a commercial fishery in Florida will be used to test hypotheses regarding the functioning and development of markets over time. Augmenting the transactions data with information obtained from personal interviews of traders will allow for the examination of factors that are likely to explain trading activity that cannot be captured otherwise, including individual characteristics that are known to affect transactions costs and the development of social networks. Finally, GIS-based information on fishing habitat and market power will complete the set of explanatory factors for use in statistical and regression analysis.
The study contributes to understanding the extent to which theories of market structure and function can be applied to tradable permit markets, specifically in commercial fisheries. This study provides an example of the utility of social network analysis to analyze market structure, a method not commonly used in fisheries studies but highly appropriate given the importance of social ties in fishing communities. The use of tradable instruments as management tools is increasing for all resources, not just fisheries, and the results of this study?by explicitly capturing spatial information on social networks and habitats in addition to individual characteristics?can prove crucial to the development of theoretically sound and effective programs. The results and policy recommendations will also be useful to the international fishing community as the use of transferable rights-based programs increases worldwide.
