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Technical Efficiency And Fishing Skill In Developing CountryFisheries: The Kedah, Malaysia Trawl Fishery

By K. Kuperan Viswanathan, Yongil Jeon, Ishak Haji Omar, James Kirkley, Dale Squires and Indah Susilowati

ABSTRACT

The question arises for fishery managers as to whether or not there are observable and measurable attributes of the skipper or vessel that fishery managers can monitor and possibly regulate to control expansions in fishing capacity from this source. This paper addresses this neglected issue of resource management through a case study of the trawler fishery in the state of Kedah in Peninsular Malaysia. Skipper skill, defined as the technical efficiency of a skipper and the skipper's vessel, represents the most difficult component of fishing capacity to monitor, measure, and manage in license limitation programs and in management by Total Allowable Catches.

This study provides one of the few pieces of empirical evidence on the magnitude of variation in skipper skill, interpreted as technical efficiency, and the factors that can affect it. In the Kedah trawl fishery, skipper characteristics other than ethnicity did not significantly affect technical efficiency and skipper skill. Hence, there does not appear to be any readily observed characteristic pertaining to skipper skill to monitor and regulate. This finding militates against regulating skipper skill to control expansions in fishing capacity that can happen under license limitation.

KEYWORDS: Technical efficiency, trawl fishery, developing country, Malaysia.


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