There could be two types of fishing licenses in the SLER
licensing system: annual fishing licenses and daily fishing
licenses. Fishers holding an annual license may be allowed
to fish for shrimp, mullet, crab or other species. Daily
licenses, on the other hand, may be specific for each species
and priced accordingly. In the first attempt to restrict fisher
numbers, the system may account for both fishers with use
rights and fishers with no use rights. That is, outsiders
would still be allowed to purchase any leftover daily
licenses to fish at the Lagoon. However, only local fishers
would be allowed to buy annual licenses. Additionally,
outsiders would pay higher prices than local fishers for
daily licenses. (The higher payment works to incorporate
the dynamic costs of fishing activity into outsiders’
decision about whether to fish).
The proposed SLER licensing system may work to
accomplish sustainability goals. The fact that fishers can be
charged a significant price to fish (instead of fishing for free
(except for their equipment and time costs)) leads us to
believe that only those who can profit from fishing or who
are willing to pay for entertainment would buy a license.
Inefficient commercial fishers (i.e., full-timers and parttimers)
who could not profit from fishing after paying the
license fee would probably not enter the system. Commercial
fishers holding annual licenses would have an incentive
to wait and fish for large (high-priced) shrimp, crab or
bivalves instead of catching small individuals early in the
season. Moreover, commercial fishers (either locals or
outsiders) who bought daily licenses would probably risk
fishing only after being convinced that large (high priced)
individuals were present in the Lagoon. Thus, capturing
small individuals could be reduced by this licensing system.
However, recreational fishers might still fish for small
individuals as they have no economic incentive to fish for
large individuals.
Based on the above discussion, the pricing of different
types of licenses could follow certain principles. First, prices
could be tied to target species. Daily licenses for each target
species (shrimp, fish, or crab) could reflect market prices for
these species. Second, pricing could be fair. Daily licenses
could be accessible to local subsistence fishers, and annual
licenses should ensure fishers enough profits to maintain their
livelihoods. Third, prices could discriminate between locals
and outsiders. Daily licenses for locals (who hold use rights)
should be cheaper than for outsiders. Fourth, prices could vary
with resource conditions. License prices in 1 year may be
higher or lower than the year before based on monitoring of
Lagoon stocks in the year before (see below). Fifth, prices
could account for environmental and market uncertainties.
Part of a license price could be a type of insurance against a
year of very low production or of very low market prices. This
is further explained in the section on earmarking license
revenues.
An alternative way of limiting fishing effort in the SLER
may be the establishment of an annual or seasonal total
allowable catch (TAC), which could then be implemented
A policy alternative for lagoon management 31
through the allocation of fishing quotas such as Individual
Transferable Quotas (ITQs) among fishers. ITQ is a type of
tradable permit that specifies catch amounts and may,
according to Hartwick and Olewiler (1998), lead to an
optimal amount of effort and harvest.