Developing the time path of resource management

Continued efforts to mate economic theory with biological characteristics of fishery resources has developed a hybrid called bioeconomics. This is an attempt to refine the ideas presented in maximum sustained yield to account for the dollar return for dollar invested in catch effort and lead to the concept of optimum sustainable yield, OSY. Resource managers now regard the optimal degree of utilization of any fishing ground as that which maximizes the net economic yield. This often yields results similar to maximizing a common property fishery. Recently the idea of ownership and future rights to the resource has been introduced. Managers now must solve the fundamental problem of economic efficiency while determining the trade-offs between present and future harvests. They must also find the proper time path for moving toward it. Thus resource management decisions need to be made within the context of a dynamic bioeconomic system.