As a first step along this path, we develop a bioeconomic model of optimal and open
access management for a for-hire recreational fishery.3 We restrict our attention to the for-hire
sector for three reasons. First, charter and headboat trips are a substantial part of total fishing
effort for many species and often contribute in a significant way to many coastal economies.
Second, given the relative ease of observing fishing activities on for-hire vessels compared to
solitary fishing trips (due to their limited and known ports of origin and the clustering of multiple
anglers on a single vessel), they are widely considered as easier targets for regulation and are
thus likely to be of some importance in recreational fisheries policy making over the near
horizon. Finally, as we shall demonstrate, the interaction of consumer preferences with the
supply behavior of vessel owners creates the potential for an array of fascinating distortions and
feedbacks with great relevance for fisheries policy.
Our model rests upon elements of the bioeconomic framework pioneered by McConnell
and Sutinen (1979) and Anderson (1993). However, their models focus on recreational demand
whereas our model incorporates a realistic and flexible theory of the choice of inputs of the for-
hire fishing firm. This synthesis of traditional bioeconomics with a production economics
treatment of firm behavior is unique, both in commercial and recreational fisheries applications.
Combining the supply and demand sides of the problem is necessary in order to examine the long
run distortions arising under open access in a manner that reflects feedbacks between angler
preferences and the decisions of vessel owners.4 Understanding these distortions, in turn, allows
3 The for-hire sector is composed of both charter and headboat vessels. A charter vessel is defined as a vessel for
which a group of anglers pays a fixed rate for the exclusive use of the vessel for a trip whereas a headboat charges
anglers individually for seats on the vessel. Our model applies to both types although we couch our analysis in
terms of headboats.
4 Huang and Lee (1976) develop a more general model of commercial fishery production in a bioeconomic context
but do not apply their framework. Empirical production economists have criticized the classic bioeconomic model
(Squires, 1987) but their has been no attempt, to the authors’ knowledge, to reconcile the dynamic insights of the
bioeconomic framework with the more realistic portrayals of fishing technology offered by production economists.