A Profitability Analysis of Catch Quotas for the Pacific Hake Fishery in the Gulf of California

Fishing for Pacific Hake Merluccius productus in the Gulf of California is carried out by shrimp trawlers. When the shrimp fishing season ends, these boats shift to catching Pacific Hake and other finfish. The Pacific Hake fishery is relatively new and has the potential to grow as an industry. Therefore, there is interest in defining management plans to create a sustainable fishery. One option is an individual vessel quota system. This paper estimates the per-vessel quota in the Pacific Hake fishery that achieves a break-even operation and estimates the number of vessels that could enter the fishery to avoid overexploitation and overcapacity. Potential per-vessel quotas were estimated based on the cash flow of a representative trawler and the estimate of total Pacific Hake biomass. The results indicate that individual catch quotas for Pacific Hake should be 90.4 or 100 metric tons to achieve a 30% or 45% increase, respectively, in net cash. Additionally, with total allowable catch values equivalent to 25% of the available biomass, the corresponding fleet size would be 74, 82, or 103 vessels based on different scenarios. Because the Pacific Hake fishery is under development, these approximations can be used during the planning stage to meet resource conservation and right-of-use standards.