The effects of catch share management on MSC certification scores

• Assessment of the effects of catch shares on MSC certification scores.
• Statistical modelling of MSC certification scores.
• Using Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) models in fisheries.
• Performance of fisheries under catch share management.

Certification of fisheries to a sustainability standard is designed to measure and potentially improve their performance. Catch share and other rights-based fisheries management programs are intended to align the economic incentives of fishermen with conservation goals, and hence increase the likelihood that these goals will be met. Given documented performance improvements from fisheries using catch share management, one might reasonably expect catch share managed fisheries to perform better against a sustainability standard than those managed using more conventional methods. This study investigated differences in the assessment scores of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fisheries managed with and without catch shares. Using Bayesian Belief Networks to model the complex relationships between fishery characteristics, management and MSC scores, our results show that fisheries using catch share management had a higher probability of exceeding a threshold level for several Performance Indicators. These differences were also apparent at higher aggregate scoring levels, which represent an aggregate of Performance Indicator scores. Higher-scoring MSC certified fisheries were about twice as likely to be managed with catch shares as without.