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Measuring seining strategies and fishing success in the Philippines
Human Organization, Summer 1998 by Russell, Susan D, Alexander, Rani T
In an earlier paper (Russell and Alexander 1996), we analyzed the folk model of the skipper effect for a Tagalog seining fleet in Batangas, Philippines and compared it with the quantitative evidence of variables affecting variation in total catch among boats. We showed that the folk model identifies a skipper's skill as a significant determinant of variation in catch, while statistically most of the variance in catch size within the fleet is accounted for by the number of trips and the number of crew per boat. In this article, we provide quantitative evidence of four distinct fishing strategies within this fleet, each comprised of a number of different tactics regarding when to fish, where to fish, and what species to pursue. Each strategy demonstrates a significant difference in total catch for the fishing season, mean catch per trip, and average catch size. In contrast to the fishing fleets of industrialized nations, where advances in electronic fish finding gear, the large and variable size of boats, and sophisticated navigational equipment have partly diluted the comparative advantage of traditional fishing skills, the Tagalog fleet represents a case where technological differences are insignificant. Hence, we have a controlled case from which to examine how fishing skill and strategy affect fishing success without the intervention of fishing technology variables.
We argue three main points in this article. First, too much of the literature has focused on the question of whether a skipper's skill is relevant or not, present or absent, and too little research has focused on the specific strategies pursued by skippers within a fleet that may effect greater fishing success. Second, we argue that the definition of fishing success -- usually defined as total catch per boat throughout a specific fishing season - may not yield the best measure for understanding fishing strategies within a fleet. In many household-based fisheries a better measure of fishing success would be mean catch per trip - a definition which mirrors the combined subsistence and commercial nature of such fisheries, where each successful fishing trip results in food for the crew and owner, funds to pay current other household expenses, as well as the income necessary for undertaking future fishing trips. Also, while most studies rely on total catch for a season as a measure of fishing success, we argue that mean catch per trip is a better measure of fishing strategy and skipper skill since it controls for "effort", or number of trips. By controlling for effort, we are then able to identify the degree to which specific "skill" or "strategy" variables account for differential fishing success. Finally, we suggest that the study of fishing strategies should begin with the assumption that strategies arise from a combination of tactics, inclusive of effort (frequency or duration of fishing trips per period of a fishing season), choice of area to search for fish, and selection of species to be pursued. The size of a boat and type of technology employed are factors that may influence strategy in some fisheries, but they also may mask differential skill among skippers or make identification of separate strategies more difficult to detect.
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