Comparative advantage and distant water fishing fleets: The Australian east coast tuna longline fishery

A coastal state benefits from importing the services of a distant water fishing nation (DWFN) fleet if the DWFN has a comparative advantage in exploiting the fishery, based on factors such as market access, costs or technology. The paper compares the activities of the Australian and Japanese vessels in the east coast tuna longline fishery and finds the Australian vessels receive higher prices, have higher costs and use a different technology from the Japanese fleet. These differences suggest a pattern of comparative advantage which can lead to Australia benefitting from importing the services of the Japanese fleet.