Editor’s Choice of the latest issue of the ICES Journal of Marine Science show how insurance concepts allow evaluations of trade-offs between economic gains and risks for an anchovy stock.
Rincón et al describe an innovative way of measuring the economic value of accounting for specific sources of variability in stock dynamics. The study builds on an insurance concept, applying it for the first time to compare risk-based management options for a real stock. According to this concept, a premium is calculated, i.e. how much would have to be paid into an insurance fund if it would have to cover the risk of bad years. Although the insurance concept is used as a calculation tool, no use of an insurance scheme is proposed in reality.
The particular drivers of stock dynamics are specific to this fishery, but the idea of using observations that can predict in-season variability is generic. The notional insurance concept for including a monetary measure of risk in considering trade-offs between harvest strategies is transferable to other fisheries that are moving towards risk-based management
Congratulations to Margarita Rincón, Javier Ruiz (CSIC, Leader of the MareFrame South Western Waters Case Study) and colleagues for proving the relevance of the research for both the advance of sicentific knowledge and the real policy context.
The article is available at the ICES Journal
Image by José Arboleda from ICES Website