A decision model to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of alternative Virginia oyster grounds management strategies
Public and private concern over the decline of Virginia's oyster industry prompted the General Assembly (GA) in 1977 and 1983 to commission its Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) to examine the State's oyster grounds management policies. In response to JLARC's...
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| Format: | Others |
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Virginia Tech
2014
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/43041 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-06102012-040204/ |
| Summary: | Public and private concern over the decline of Virginia's
oyster industry prompted the General Assembly (GA) in
1977 and 1983 to commission its Joint Legislative Audit and
Review Commission (JLARC) to examine the State's oyster
grounds management policies. In response to JLARC's findings
the GA directed Virginia Marine Resources Commission
(VMRC) to construct and implement an oyster fisheries management
plan. The GA set as the plan's objective to achieve
the greatest production level possible subject to limits of
physical resource availability and technical feasibility.
That the plan should be attentive to cost-effectiveness was
also expressed by the GA.
In developing its management plan VMRC must consider a
variety of environmental, economic and political factors
affecting the production and harvest of market oysters. A
linear programming model developed for VMRC's use in evaluating alternative oyster grounds management strategies is described. The objective of the programming model is to minimize the public plus private cost of producing a prespecified level of market oyster harvest over a ten year planning horizon. The model includes as its activities the different aquacultural techniques used by private planters and VMRC in its repletion program. The many environmental, economic and political factors are incorporated into the model's constraints and technical coefficients.
Several management alternatives are evaluated with the
model. The results of these analyses indicate that without
a fundamental in the oyster repletion program, even if new
oyster grounds management policies are considered, there
would be little change in public grounds market oyster harvest
over current levels. Under revised repletion program practices, however, marked increases in public grounds harvest could be effected for relatively small increases in repletion program budget allocations over current levels. === Master of Science |
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