TITLE:
An Integrated Socio-Economic and Ecological Framework for Evaluating the Societal Costs and Benefits of Fishing Activities in the Pearl River Delta
AUTHORS:
Ying Wang, Haoran Pan, Shiyu Li, Pierre Failler
KEYWORDS:
Integrated ECOST Model, Ecopath with Ecosim, Costs and Benefits Analysis, Fishing Activities
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Marine Science,
Vol.5 No.4,
October
30,
2015
ABSTRACT: This paper puts forward a
model of Pearl River Delta (PRD) fishery in the South China Sea (SCS) that
integrates the ecological, social and economic costs and benefits of fisheries
activities in a multidisciplinary framework. In particular, an integrated ECOST
model is composed of links between an ecological model constructed by Ecopath
with Ecosim (EwE) software and a region Social Accounting Matrix (SAM). Then
the costs and benefits of five fishing methods are compared from economic,
ecological and social three dimensions base on the ECOST model. The potential
effects of fishing effort reduction on fishing communication are explored by a
series of dynamic simulations for a 10-year period. Key results from prediction
(2005-2015) and policy simulations illustrate that fisheries of PRE are geared
toward short-term economic profits at the expense of ecological gains and the
whole group of societal benefits associated with fishing. However, the status
quo can be improved to better levels by reducing fishing efforts.