This paper uses a predator-prey model to discuss the fundamental economics of fishing down the food chain. Three regimes are compared: open access, global optimization, and partial optimization of rents from each stock. If the net price of prey species increases, fishing down the food chain would indeed be a desirable effect in economic terms. Under open access, however, fishing down the food chain could occur as a result of a higher net price of species higher up in the food chain. With partial optimization, there could be less fishing down the food chain than economically desirable. |
