Bremen International Graduate School for Marine Sciences

The Centre for the Economics and Management of Aquatic Resources (CEMARE) within the Department of Economics at the University of Portsmouth offered a two weeks PhD intensive course on The Economics of Fisheries Management in July 16-27.
Thanks to GLOMAR, I was allowed to participate in this course and to learn from some of the leading professors in the field of fisheries economics.

The trip to Portsmouth was not that far from Bremen but it took quite a while to get to the target place, Rees Hall, a student’s accommodation in Portsmouth. About seven participants out of nineteen from all over the world stayed at that house. Beside learning and discussing our results during the two weeks intensive course, we enjoyed several meals and drinks in the beautiful old harbour part of the city. Some of us also managed to visit the Isle of Wight or the Portsmouth Historical Dockyards but there was not much time left between the lessons.

The course consisted of twenty two-hours lectures with one session in the morning and one in the afternoon. The principal lecturers Prof. T. Bjorndal from CEMARE and Prof. G.R. Munro from the University of British Columbia gave us a broad survey of world capture fisheries and aquaculture. We were taught about the static and dynamic economic model of the fishery, quota management, shared fish stocks and high seas issues of international fisheries, and the role of game theory in fisheries management, just to name some of the main topics. Selected lectures were given by guest lecturers who were invited as experts to certain themes. Mr. A Hatcher from CEMARE talked about quota management, Dr. P. Pintassilgo from the University of the Algarve gave an overview of a game theoretic analysis of international fisheries, Prof. D. Whitmarsh from CEMARE gave lectures on the economic and social evaluation of artificial marine habitats and Mr. A. Serdy from the School of Law within the University of Southampton gave a talk on modern international fisheries law.
All course participants got a detailed reading list and a lot of papers to study and assignments to solve in-between the lessons. We were allowed to use the library and the internet with a temporary access for each of us. CEMARE and the University of Portsmouth are keen to support their students’ work and it was a pleasure to be in the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning of the University of Portsmouth. – Many thanks to the lecturers and organisers.

I would like to thank GLOMAR for the support and for giving me the opportunity to be educated in an international training environment. Attending this course was very valuable for my own PhD work. I gained an excellent insight into the econometric background of international management of straddling and highly migratory stocks and the game theoretical approach in regional fisheries management organisations. Beside the professional input, I met many interesting scholars and PhD students who are working in the field of fisheries economics. As this field is quite little, we all gained from broadening our networks.

There will be more courses at CEMARE next year. I would recommend attending these courses to everyone who is interested in the economics of fisheries.