The Past,Present, and Future of Environmental Insurance Including a Case Study of MTBE Litigation

Environmental insurance policies and the success of claims brought under them depend upon the intersection of both the legal and technical issues involved. The evolution of environmental insurance policies, from their origin in the Commercial General Liability policies up to the creation of new insurance products designed to cover specifically environmental concerns are addressed in this work. Both scientists and attorneys will have to develop a fuller understanding of environmental damage and assessments. The intent of this article is to provide a starting point for members of both disciplines in their quest for a fuller understanding of the legal and technical issues involved in environmental claims.     

Exploring corruption in fisheries

This paper explores corruption in global fisheries. While reducing corruption is critical for the effective management of the fisheries sector and the fulfilment of the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs, and SDGs14 and 16 in particular), to do so, it is necessary to first have a systematic and comprehensive understanding of what corruption is and how it is manifested in the sector. There is literature on illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, but not much on corruption. The paper proposes an analytical framework and applies it with six revelatory cases to improve the conceptual clarity of corruption in fisheries. Specific corruption problems found in licensing, negotiating access agreements, lax enforcement, extortion, political corruption, money laundering and tax manipulation, human trafficking, etc. can therefore be better identified through this analysis, which lays a base for systematic responses to tackling corruption in fisheries and accordingly furthering the sustainable development of the sector.     

Optimal Harvesting of the Norwegian Spring-Spawning Herring: Variable Versus Fixed Harvesting Strategies

In this paper we study optimal harvesting of the Norwegian spring-spawning herring stock. The biological model is described by a discrete time age-structured model. The optimal harvesting patterns are studied numerically and the results show that when using a linear cost function and constant price in the optimisation model, the optimal harvesting pattern is pulse fishing. However, optimal constant fishing effort gives only slightly lower profit. Moreover, when price is made responsive to harvest the optimal harvesting strategy is substantially smoothed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The socioeconomic significance of nature-based recreation in Canada

In recognition of the many values that people ascribe to nature, federal, provincial, and territorial agencies worked inpartnership to complete the 'Survey on the Importance of Natureto Canadians' (SINC) in 1981, 1987, 1991, and 1996. Between 1981 and 1996, more than 80% of Canadians 15 years of age and older engaged in one or more nature-related activities. This paper describes the evolution of this cooperative monitoring program, defines a classification system as a context for the values examined by the SINC, highlights trends of some nature-related recreational activities measured by the survey, and comments onthe importance of this information to Canadians.     

Emission characteristics of offshore fishing ships in the Yellow Bo Sea, China

Maritime transport has been playing a decisive role in global trade. Its contribution to the air pollution of the sea and coastal areas has been widely recognized. The air pollutant emission inventories of several harbors in China have already been established. However,the emission factors of local ships have not been addressed comprehensively, and thus are lacking from the emission inventories. In this study, on-board emission tests of eight diesel-powered offshore fishing ships were conducted near the coastal region of the northern Yellow Bo Sea fishing ground of Dalian, China. Results show that large amounts of fine particles( 0.5 μm, 90%) were found in maneuvering mode, which were about five times higher than those during cruise mode. Emission rates as well as emission factors based on both distance and fuel were determined during the cruise and maneuvering modes(including departure and arrival). Average emission rates and distance-based emission factors of CO, HC and PM were much higher during the maneuvering mode as compared with the cruise mode. However, the average emission rate of Nitrous Oxide(NOx) was higher during the cruise mode as compared with the maneuvering modes. On the contrary, the average distance-based emission factors of NOxwere lower during the cruise mode relative to the maneuvering mode due to the low sailing speed of the latter.     

洱海浮游桡足类群落结构对季节性休渔的响应

为了解洱海浮游桡足类群落结构的季节动态特征,于2009年2~11月对洱海浮游桡足类进行逐月采样.结果显示:洱海浮游桡足类生物量的季节性分布呈"双峰型",峰值分别出现在休渔期中期和捕鱼期中期.在休渔期中期,桡足类以杂食性的剑水蚤Mesocyclops dissimilis为优势种;在捕鱼期中期,则以滤食性的哲水蚤舌状叶镖水蚤为优势种.季节性休渔不仅导致鱼类对桡足类的捕食压力出现季节性变化,而且通过影响枝角类的群落结构,改变枝角类对桡足类的竞争压力.在相对较低的捕食压力和较大的食物竞争压力影响下,桡足类以杂食性的剑水蚤为优势类群;在相对较大的捕食压力和较低的食物竞争压力下,以滤食性的哲水蚤为优势类群.     

Economics of harvesting age-structured fish populations

A generic age-structured model is developed to derive analytical results on optimal harvesting. Given two age classes, knife-edge selectivity, and no stock-dependent harvesting cost, the steady state is a unique saddle point. Adding harvesting cost does not alter the uniqueness, given that the utility is linear. Under specific conditions such as nonselective gear, optimal harvesting is proved to be a stationary cycle that represents pulse fishing. Optimal steady states are different if age-structured information is ignored and optimization is based on traditional biomass variables. This implies that the existence of optimal sustainable harvesting depends on age-structured information. Given a specific set of conditions such as low interest rate and knife-edge selectivity, optimal harvesting converges toward a unique saddle point independently of the number of age classes.     

Is there a commercially viable market for crop insurance in rural Bangladesh?

The study aims to assess the commercial viability of a potential crop insurance market in Bangladesh. In a large scale household survey, agricultural farm households were asked for their preferences for a hypothetical crop insurance scheme using double bounded (DB) contingent valuation (CV) method. Both revenue and production cost based indemnity payment approaches were applied to assess the commercial viability of a crop insurance program assuming a partner-agent (PA) model of insurance supply. Crop insurance is found marginally commercially viable in riverine flood plain areas. The expected indemnity payable consistently exceeds the expected insurance premium receivable by the insurer for the households living in wetland basin and coastal floodplain. We conclude that a uniform structure of crop insurance market does not exist in Bangladesh. The nature of the disaster risks faced by the farm households and the socio-economic characteristics of the rural farm communities need to be taken into careful consideration while designing such an insurance scheme.

东黄渤海白姑鱼(Argyrosomus argentatus) 渔场空间格局的研究

根据1971-1982年渤、黄、东海的统计资料研究近海白姑鱼数量空间格局的变化。研究结果表明:我国东黄渤海白姑鱼渔场一共有3类:即产卵场渔场,主要位于春季东海沿海水域;索饵场渔场主要位于夏季的东海北部和黄海南部;越冬场渔场有两个,北部越冬场在冬季的东黄海外海,南部越冬场主要集中在东海南部近海。自1978年后,东海白姑鱼产量明显上升,并且超过黄渤海区。通过对不同渔场白姑鱼产量对整个渔场产量贡献的分布格局分析显示,东海白姑鱼主要渔场有两个:其中东黄海渔场位于长江口附近,渔讯为5-9月;黄渤海的渔场位于黄海北部近海和渤海中央,主要渔讯在11月。在渔汛时,白姑鱼渔场中的鱼群密集,产量集中,是捕捞白姑鱼的理想渔场。1971-1982年白姑鱼鱼群的分布与近年来分布格局类似,因此论文有关白姑鱼渔场特征、渔汛时间和渔场贡献率分布格局模式等重要结论对现今白姑鱼资源保护仍然具有重要的参考价值。     

Optimizing voluntary compliance in marine protected areas: a comparison of recreational fisher and enforcement officer perspectives using multi-criteria analysis

A comprehensive list of planning criteria for optimizing compliance in Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) was compiled and used to compare the views of recreational fishers and compliance officers for facilitating voluntary compliance in the Port Stephens - Great Lakes Marine Park (PSGLMP). Expert working groups were tasked separately with: 1) criteria identification and weighting; 2) scoring of no-take zones; 3) prioritizing and determining uncertainty; and 4) analysis of results and sensitivity testing. Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) revealed that both groups had similar perspectives and recommendations, despite weighting the individual planning criteria differently. Significantly, "manageability" scores for no-take zones from MCA appeared to correlate well with past numbers of enforcement actions recorded for each zone. This provides empirical evidence that adopting manageability criteria during the planning of MPAs could lead to a marked increase in voluntary compliance. As a result, greater consideration to compliance planning during MPA design and zoning is recommended in order to optimize voluntary compliance. Whilst the majority of no-take zones in the PSGLMP case study were evaluated as being relatively effective in terms of optimizing voluntary compliance, there remains considerable potential to improve design, management and use of the poorer performing zones. Finally, the study highlighted the value of recreational fisher engagement in MPA planning processes to maximize voluntary compliance and manageability.