Analyzing Optimal Economic Fishing Efforts of the Coastal Snow Crab Gillnet Fishery

대게 연안자망어업의 경제적 적정 어구사용량 분석

The Korean government is in the establishment process of plan for managing fishing effort by setting up the maximum fishing gear usage per fishery type for the recovery of fishery resources, for the settlement of disputes between fishery sectors over fishing gears, and for the stability of fishing business condition. Especially in the setting up of the maximum fishing gear usage, economic standards as well as biological standards are being considered as a significant factor to promote the sustainable and economically viable development of fisheries. This study is, thus, to analyze the optimal economic fishing gear usage ($E_{MEY}$) as the most economically efficient one for the coastal snow crab gillnet fishery, one of the most controversial sectors in establishing the maximum fishing gear usage. The data of logbooks per trip were used for concentrating on the estimation of $E_{MEY}$ per trip because it was considered there were limitations of data available for analyses. As a finding drawn from the analyses, the optimal economic trap usage ($E_{MEY}$) of coastal snow crab gillnet vessels per trip has to be decreased by about 13%. That is, reducing the trip gillnet usage up to the level of $E_{MEY}$ can lead to the reduction of trip fishing costs, thereby resulting in the increased trip profits.