Semester of Graduation

Spring 2025

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Agricultural Economics

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Bycatch, unintentionally caught non-target species, harms the profitability of commercial fishing operations and leads to death and injury of hundreds of thousands of marine animals per year. In the Gulf of Mexico, commercial shrimpers are required to use a bycatch reduction device (BRD). Better BRDs are being tested to further reduce bycatch. Because their use will not be mandatory, it is important to measure shrimper willingness to voluntarily adopt this conservation technology to predict potential fleet participation. This study uses contingent valuation to elicit commercial shrimpers’ willingness to accept compensation for using these new devices.

We employ an incentivized payment card elicitation framed as a modified Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction. We apply it to federally permitted commercial shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico to estimate compensation required to adopt new BRDs and the main drivers or barriers to adoption. Based on 108 responses collected in early summer of 2024 (~11% of the total population), we find that shrimpers require a minimum payment of $263-282 per day to use the device. This work also provides a detailed analysis of a diffuse industry that is important to the Gulf Coast and has implications for ensuring bycatch reduction goals are efficiently met in the Gulf of Mexico.

Date

4-24-2025

Committee Chair

Dr. Jerrod Penn

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