Bio-Economic assessment of the industrial pomada shrimp fishery in Posorja (Guayas-Ecuador) during the period 2008-2014

Abstract

In this paper we attempt to establish a baseline to understand the profitability of the Pomada fleet that operates in Posorja, province of Guayas in Ecuador, under different policy scenarios. For that purpose, we use primary and secondary data collected from 2008 to 2014. We estimate both the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) and the maximum economic yield (MEY) for the Pomada shrimp fishery. We found that the individual daily catch quota, which was established in 2013 by the same Pomaderos for the Pomada shrimp fishery, is likely to be beyond the sustainable limits by about 750 Kgs.  We discuss how to implement fishery management policies using either MSY or MEY as references. We also simulate how alternative total allowable catch policies could affect the profitability and financial risk of the fishing fleet. Finally, some recommendations are provided to improve the process of data collection, as well as improvements to the methodology, to increase the accuracy, reliability and sophistication of the estimation of both MSY and MEY