Convergence Analysis on the Fish Stock Status Index for 131 Countries

Abstract

Under a wide variation of overfished stocks by countries and regions, this research examines whether regions and countries with low overfished ratios are increasing their fishing output to catch-up to regions and countries with higher overfished ratios. For the total group of 131 countries, the averaged overfished ratio had increased rapidly at the CAGR of 3.22% during 1980 to 2014. The annual growth rate of the averaged overfished ratio varied widely among five regional subgroups ranging from 4.54% at Middle East North Africa region to 2.16% at Sub Saharan African region. The annual speed of catch-up (γ convergence) varied from -2.06% for Sub Saharan region to -1.08% by Middle East North Africa Region. Among several policy implications, drastic reduction of over capacity of the world fishing fleet will be discussed.

Keywords: Maximum sustainable yield, “Overfished”, Dispersion reduction (σ convergence), catch-up (γ convergence)