NEWSROOM
Louisiana
Sea Grant Receives $648,000 Grant
August
11, 2008
Louisiana Sea Grant
has been awarded a $648,512 grant from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service to
conduct a socioeconomic assessment of the northern Gulf of Mexico’s
fisheries. Rex Caffey, Louisiana Sea Grant coastal specialist
and professor and director of the LSU Center for Natural Resource
Economics & Policy (CNREP), will coordinate the project with
CNREP co-investigators Walter Keithly and Richard Kazmierczak.
The research will include
three studies developed in conjunction with staff economists of
the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center. They include: 1)
a survey and characterization of the recreational-for-hire charter
fishing industry in the northern Gulf of Mexico; 2) an economic
review of the recently-implemented individual fish quota management
system for red snapper; and 3) development of a demand forecasting
model for U.S. consumption of domestic seafood. Essentially, these
studies will examine how increasing regulatory actions and downward
market factors have affected recreational charter boat operators,
commercial red snapper fishermen and domestic seafood processors,
and what adjustments can be made at the public and private level
to address those forces.
The three-year project
also will establish two new Sea Grant-sponsored postdoctoral positions
and two additional graduate assistantships for CNREP researchers
in the LSU Department of Agricultural Economics.
“Each of these
studies will provide baseline data that is needed for state and
federal fisheries management purposes,” said Caffey. “Periodic
snapshot studies, such as these, are useful in describing the
short- and long-term implications of policy changes and market
forces. Armed with objective, science-based information, state
and federal manager can make policy adjustments to assure that
the nation’s fisheries are managed in an economically and
environmentally sound manner.”
Since its establishment
in 1968, Louisiana Sea Grant has worked to promote stewardship
of the state’s coastal resources through a combination of
research, education and outreach programs critical to the cultural,
economic and environmental health of Louisiana’s coastal
zone. Louisiana Sea Grant, based at Louisiana State University,
is part of the National Sea Grant Program, a network of 32 programs
in each of the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes states and Puerto
Rico.
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