Research Highlights

 

Fishery Research

Ocean Analytics is the research arm of the Sustainable Fisheries Group. Based at UC Santa Barbara’s Marine Science Institute and Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, the Principals are Christopher Costello (Resource Economics) and Steven Gaines (Marine Ecology) and the team includes graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, research scientists, technical staff and faculty. The interdisciplinary strategy of Ocean Analytics, melding the skills of quantitative ecologists and economists, shows great promise in addressing a wide range of environmental problems, such as the design and implementation of successful market-based fisheries reforms. Research projects are motivated by gaps in scientific knowledge, with our team providing innovative analyses, tools and results, which we work to disseminate to achieve maximum policy impact. Research areas include, among other topics:

• The design of catch share systems and the role of catch shares in improving sustainability, compliance, and cost-efficiency of management
• Economic and biological performance of alternative fisheries management strategies
• The role of marine reserves and catch share management in reducing bycatch
• Innovations in fisheries management, particularly related to property rights-based management

Fishery Policy & Reform  

A core goal of the SFG is to make measurable progress towards reforming individual fisheries using catch share management systems. Our portfolio consists of six pilot fisheries, several of which are well positioned to make a transition to catch share management in the near future. Below are some of the projects for which we are focusing our efforts to effect policy change and management reform:

• West Coast Groundfish Fishery 
• Central Coast Groundfish Fishery
• San Miguel Island Abalone Fishery
• Gulf of California Fishery Reform, Alternative Gear and Vaquita Conservation
• Humboldt Current Anchoveta Fishery and Ecosystem Conservation