Dr. Hajime Tanaka, a research fellow of Ocean Policy Research Institute of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (President: Dr. Atsushi Sunami), and Prof. Mitsutaku Makino, University of Tokyo, evaluates the regional economic impact of the MSY-based fishery policy on the squid industry, specifically in case of the Japanese flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) in Hakodate-city, Hokkaido Prefecture by coupling ecological-economic modeling. The results showed that MSY-based fisheries are effective in dealing with the risks of low recruitment and requires long perspectives on policy implications.

This research has been published from Marine Policy on 22 September 2023 (JST).
PDF of full issue is available from ScienceDirect. 
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X23003767

This study evaluates the regional economic impact of the MSY-based fishery policy on the squid industry, specifically in case of the Japanese flying squid (Todarodes pacificus) in Hakodate-city, Hokkaido Prefecture by coupling ecological-economic modeling. The results show that a 10-year MSY-based squid fishery in Hakodate would have an economic ripple effect of approximately − 0.085 billion JPY in the case of normal recruitment, and 0.061 billion JPY in the case of low recruitment both in the present value with 4% annual discount rate. In the viewpoint of percentage, they are less than 0.3% of the economic profits of the non-MSY based fishery, which indicates that the economic impact of MSY-based fisheries is not that significant. In addition, the decreased catch values after the first five years are so huge that the total present value of the MSY-based fishery is negative in the normal recruit scenario. This suggests that MSY-based fisheries are effective in dealing with the risks of low recruitment and requires long perspectives on policy implications. This study also recommends high-level bilateral dialogue between Japan and China on squid fishery management to decrease the uncertainty on the stock assessment.