http://research.ifas.ufl.edu/facultySpotlight/larken.asp

Dr. Sherry L. Larkin

November 30, 2006
©2006 University of Florida

By Jessica Magnani, IFAS Research Reporter.

On the surface, working with fisheries, forests and reefs may seem oddly haphazard, but Dr. Sherry Larkin’s interdisciplinary work underscores the importance of adopting sustainable and economically feasible approaches to natural resource management.

“Most of the projects I work with look for ways to use natural resources better than we have in the past,” said Larkin, associate professor of food and resource economics. “One of the things economists can help with when resources are scarce is determine how to get the most value from those limited resources, whether that means conservation, property rights or something else.”

“Resource economics is inherently interdisciplinary.  Every fishery project I’ve worked on, I worked on with a biologist.  When we work on a forestry project, we need a forester,” she said.  “I’ve also worked on projects with anthropologists who help us understand the social details of different communities.”

Although she has worked with forest management and precision farming, much of Larkin’s work has focused on marine resources, particularly on commercial marine fisheries. 

Larkin first became interested in marine resources as a PhD student at Oregon State University. “My colleagues were working on very localized issues,” she explained.  “Fisheries appealed to me because it was international.  Whatever work I did would be applicable in other parts of the world.”

Since then Larkin has worked on a number of international projects in New Zealand, Korea, Mexico, the Falkland Islands, and Canada.  One of her recent projects compared fisheries management in New Zealand to fisheries management in the U.S.  The study found that when rebuilding fish stocks, governments needed to account for economic and socioeconomic issues affecting coastal communities and commercial fisherman, as well as the fish species being restocked.  Studies like this can help communities determine which management regimes might work more efficiently to restore fish species while at the same time preserving the economic viability of coastal communities.

“In New Zealand they account for the foreseeable needs of future generations in order to determine the length of the rebuild period for marine species. Rather than assign an arbitrary time period for rebuilding, they attempt to determine a feasible rebuilding period that also minimizes negative affects on related communities,” Larkin explained.  “There are a lot of benefits to keeping coastal communities vibrant during the rebuilding period.”

Part of Larkin’s economics work thus centers on finding and evaluating different methods for using resources efficiently.  “In fisheries, we look at different fisheries management regimes to determine which system can protect or rebuild our stock while also conferring higher economic values that would otherwise be wasted,” she said.

The depletion of fish stocks has increased globally in the last ten years, with some scientists arguing that as much as 70% of the world’s fish species are depleted or exploited.  According to Larkin, part of the problem has to do with the ways countries manage fisheries. 

“There are different models for fisheries management around the world, but the U.S. has tended to follow a model that relies on increased regulations,” she said.  “Other countries have addressed shortages by making the assignment of property rights stronger. The fisheries that have adopted a stronger rights-based system have done better recently; the evidence suggests that it’s working.”

Assigning rights to a percentage of the yearly projected surplus of a stock means that people holding property rights may harvest fish at any time of the year as long as they do not exceed their quota.  Unlike open-season fishing, which forces people to collect their fish during a limited time-period, property rights fishing allows fisherman more flexibility.  It also benefits consumers by making fresh fish products available for extended periods.

“Open-access has resulted in a lot of over-fishing because everyone races to harvest as fast as they can, Larkin explained.  “People will risk their lives and take a huge amount of product. But when fish are turned into frozen product, storage times and costs increase, and you really reduce the value of the resource.”

Part of Larkin’s role in marine resource economics is factoring economic feasibility into sustainability efforts.  “We didn’t have to worry about allocations in the past, but resources are becoming scarce,” she said.  “When communities have these scarcity problems, economists can help decide the appropriate level of conservation.”

One of the ways Larkin and other marine resource economists hope to encourage sustainability in marine fisheries is through buyback programs that reduce the number of commercial fishing vessels.  In the 1970s and 80s, when the exclusive economic zone was extended to 200 nautical miles, the U.S. government actively promoted fishing, Larkin said.  The current state of the fishing industry, however, can no longer support all of the commercial fishing vessels.

“A lot of the boats out there are 20 to 30 years old boats and don’t have another use,” she explained.  “So we are working on capacity reduction programs that work for these fishermen and that make sense economically.”

In addition to working with fisheries, Larkin is also working on a study measuring the economic impact of red tide events in Florida.  In order to determine the level of government resources that should be invested in red tide research, Larkin and her colleagues are examining how much money the state loses annually to red tide.

“We’ve been looking at people’s behaviors when faced with red tide. We study where people go and whether they cancel vacations.  We also examine how much money hotels and restaurants lose, as well as how red tide impacts beach and park attendance,” she explained.

“Red tide is a huge threat to tourism, but the effects can vary so much that it’s a tricky thing to predict.  But if we can measure just a little bit of it, maybe we can help justify some of the spending, at least to these local economies.”

As Larkin continues examining marine resource management, impacts of red tides, forest management regimes, precision farming, marine ecolabeling, and values of conservation lands and waterways, opportunities for interdisciplinary work abound.  Next, she is planning to collaborate with the Florida Sea Grant program to measure the value of artificial reefs in southwest Florida. 

“The artificial reefs project is appealing because it means working with new people within IFAS and making the most of information they’ve already collected,” Larkin said.

In addition to her research and teaching responsibilities, Larkin is also associate editor of Marine Resource Economics and an executive committee member of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET).