ABSTRACT
Commercial fishing is characterized by several key economic and technological features that are relevant to the formulation of an economic theory of fish production. The new growth in the population fish mass depends upon the harvest rate relative to natural recruitment to the stock. The most general hypothesis governing the long-run operating costs of a fishing vessel must account for both stock and crowding externalities. The purpose of the industry model is to provide one example of a descriptive theory that transforms any specific pattern of assumptions about cost conditions, demand externalities, and biomass growth technology into a pattern of exploitation. The model is very rich in possible solutions, given only the stated qualitative restrictions on the cost, revenue, and recruitment rate functions. The literature of fishery economics contains several discussions of the effect of competition versus sole ownership on capital requirements and output in the stationary state.
