The Commercial Trap Fishery in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico: an Economic, Social, and Technological Profile

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the socioeconomic conditions of the small-scale trap fishery in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and examine the determinants affecting the technical performance of the fleet. The socioeconomic data used in the analysis were derived from random, in-person interviews with 50 trap fishers, which accounted for about one-third of the active trap fishers. The study found that the fishery is composed of middle-aged, small-scale commodity producers who use traditional, capital-intensive technologies to target Caribbean spiny lobsters Panulirus argus and various reef fishes. Fishers reported that fishing made up 74% of their household income. We also explored the factors influencing the technical efficiency of the fleet by using a stochastic production frontier model. The analysis suggested that trap operations could increase their gross revenues per trip by 36%, on average, by using current input levels and technology more efficiently. The fleet exhibited decreasing returns to scale. The study also found that a 10% increase in the number of traps tended would raise gross revenues by 0.9% and that baiting traps would raise gross revenues by 1.4%. The analysis suggested that fishing experience and kinship ties were the key determinants of technical efficiency. We also explored the policy implications stemming from these results.

Received September 22, 2016; accepted April 6, 2017 Published online June 23, 2017

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Authors are listed alphabetically; no senior authorship is implied. We thank all of the trap fishers who kindly shared their time and expertise about the fishery. We gratefully acknowledge the hard work of interviewers Glenis Padilla, Edgardo Figueroa, Javier Medina, Jeiger Medina, and Francisco Soto, who spent countless hours interviewing the fishers. We appreciate Graciela García-Moliner (Caribbean Fishery Management Council), Daniel Matos-Caraballo (Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, Fisheries Research Laboratory), and Bill Arnold, Matt McPherson, Alex Chester, and Joshua Bennett (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA]) for their insightful comments on the manuscript. Finally, we thank Isabel Castro (University of Miami) for her tireless administrative support. Funding from the NOAA Office of Science and Technology supported this project. The views and opinions provided or implied in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the NOAA.