Motivation
With game theory bleeding into so many facets, it could still be hard to imagine how game theory would have any connection with fisheries. The paper I have come across highlights how game theory can be applied to better understand overfishing between different fisheries, which in turn could prevent disasters such as climate change.
How it Works
Society and fishers understands that overfishing is harmful both economically and environmentally, yet fishers still partake in this activity. To understand why fishers adopt this strategy we can take a look at this in terms of game theory.
Similar to the prisoner’s dilemma, two groups of competing fishing industries, would tend to overfish in order to not fall behind in the competitive market. This however, leads to negative consequences environmentally and economically. Both groups of fishers would generally be better off had they tried a cooperative approach.
Conclusion
With game theory being around for a while, its application to the fishing industry has been known and a cooperative approach to fishing has been taken into consideration by some fishing industries. Norway and Russia had tackled this dispute back in 1997, Canada and the US did back in 2004, and Australia and New Zealand back in 1987.
The impact of applying game theory to the fishing industry has allowed us to reap environmental and economic benefits most people would have never foreseen, showing how game theory applications can bleed over to many other areas of study and have such profound benefits.
Sources:
Bailey, M., Sumaila, U. R., & Lindroos, M. (2009, November 22). Application of game theory to fisheries over three decades. Fisheries Research. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165783609003051