Using a coupled behavior-economic model to reduce uncertainty and assess fishery management in a data-limited, small-scale fishery

This paper examines how fishersʹ ecological knowledge (FEK) and the analysis of their decision-making process can be used to help managers anticipate fisher behavior and thus be able to efficiently allocate scarce resources for monitoring and enforcement. To examine determinants of fisher behaviors, this study develops a coupled behavior-economic model examining how physical, market, and regulatory forces affect commercial fishersʹ choice of fishing grounds in a small-scale fishery (SSF) in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The model estimates that fishing operations land $396 ± 110 per trip (mean ± 1 SD; n = 427 trips), with the highest value in landings arriving from Lang Bank. The model explains 62% of the variation in fishersʹ choice to fish at Lang Bank, the most productive, yet farthest fishing grounds. The coupled behavioral–economic model is focused on the small temporal and spatial scales of fishing effort and FEK in an SSF. Therefore the model can be used to predict how a range of physical and regulatory conditions and changes in demand will drive overall (fleet) fishing effort allocation in space and time. By illustrating and quantifying these social–ecological causes and effects, the model can assist managers to efficiently allocate limited monitoring and enforcement resources.