Sustainable Management of Shrimp Trawl Fishery in Tonkin Gulf, Vietnam

Abstract

This study investigates the sustainability of shrimp stock in the trawl fishery in the Tonkin Gulf, Vietnam. It is a small scale and multi-species fishery. The Verhulst-Schaefer and GompertzFox surplus production models are applied. There are two shrimp spawning seasons in a year in the Gulf. Therefore, in this study, the surplus production models, associated to catch calendar and effort data, are applied for a half-year time interval. The results indicatethat the fishing effort should be reduced by roughly 12-44% to achieve the maximum sustainable yield and 46-61% to reach the maximum economic yield. With a social discount rate of 10%, the effort should decrease by around 45-56% to achieve the optimal yield. The entry tax should be 92-279 USD/month/boat to achieve the maximum sustainable yield and 160-314 USD/month/boat to attain the maximum economic yield.

Keywords : bioeconomic analysis, shrimp trawl fishery, fishery management, Vietnam

JEL Classification : D24, H41, Q22