Measuring productivity in fishery sector of Peninsular Malaysia

This paper investigates the productivity of marine fisheries on the east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia for the period 1990–2005. Based on the data for landings and effort, weighted catch per unit of effort (CPUE) is computed for the trawl, purse seine and traditional fleets. The weighted CPUE differentiates the quality or composition of catch through weighting of the species mix in the catch by the share of total revenue of each species. Similarly, the various inputs that constitute fishing effort are weighted by their respective cost shares. The ratio of the Tornqvist chain catch and effort indices was used to measure intertemporal productivity changes in the respective fisheries. The results showed that the weighted CPUE was the highest for purse seine on the east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia. However, the productivity of purse seine fleet has not been tremendously increased over time. The productivities of trawl and traditional fleets on the east and west coasts were low. Restricting fishing effort through vessel limitation programs is viewed as a possible way of raising the productivities of these fleets. In addition, productivity increases can be achieved by enhancement of the resource stocks such as through the construction of artificial reefs.