CLOCK presentation at the EAFE workshop on international fisheries agreements

May 14—15 2018, the workshop on international agreements in the fisheries sector was held in Faore Islands. The workshop is organized by the European Association of Fisheries Economists (EAFE).  Over 30 participants from academics, research institutes, European Commission, and NGOs joined the workshop. Professor Pedro Pintassilgo at the University of Algarve gave keynote speech. Sissi presented CLOCK´s first deliverable paper, entitled “Management solutions for shifting trans-boundary fish stocks under fixed catch shares”. The talk attracted wide interest among the participants, as Prof. Pintassilgo commented “the model is unique in the sense it combines dynamic membership with uncertainty, the two aspects considered important in fisheries agreements literature”.

The Faroe Islands, a small but important fishing nation in the North Atlantic, is best suited for this workshop. The Islands was in the epicenter of “mackerel war” among EU, Faroe, Iceland and Norway.  A pilot agreement of 5 years is currently in place to settle the mackerel dispute due to range shift in response to warming sea water temperature.

With merely 50,000 habitants, The Faroe Islands has the highest per capita fish production in the world– 38kg fish per day per person; 22% of employment in the Islands is generated by the production and processing industry of fisheries. This also provides Faroese extra incentive to manage their natural resources sustainably. Recently, Faroese parliament passed a major fisheries reform which states that fishing licenses may never become private property, and as of 1 January 2018 fishing licenses cannot be traded directly between private buyers and must go through a public auction.