Author (Your Name)

Andre Garron, Colby College

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Open Access)

Department

Colby College. Economics Dept.

Advisor(s)

Kashif Mansori

Second Advisor

Berger, Thomas

Abstract

The world population recently topped 6 billion people. Each person has the same need to eat, breathe, and drink. Unfortunately the world's limited resources imply a carrying capacity for the human race. As we approach this critical mass, the strain on our resources becomes increasingly severe. We have already begun to realize such disasters. Many of the world's fisheries have been destroyed, depleted to near nonexistence, or critically overfished. In some cases they only held on because the price of catching the final fish outweighed the potential revenue from catching it. This paper is an attempt to increase our understanding of the interaction between the economic motivations and biological forces at work in fisheries so that we may better preserve current stocks and help prevent future ecological devastation. More specifically, I seek to understand the decisions of fishermen in response to the price and stock of fish. The basis for my work is "Backward Boycotts: Demand Management and Fishery Conservation", by J. Samuel Barkin and Kashif Mansori, who argue that the supply curve for a fishery may be downward sloping or be S-shaped.

Keywords

Fishery management -- Mathematical models, Fisheries -- Economic aspects, Fishes -- Conservation

Included in

Economics Commons

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