Risk aversion in allocating fishing effort in a highly uncertain coastal fishery for pelagic fish, Moluccas, Indonesia

The Ambonese small-scale purse-seine fishery for small pelagic fish, such a s scads and mackerels, is characterised by highly variable daily catches. F ishermen involved in this fishery are therefore seriously constrained in op timising the outcome of their fishery through spatial allocation of effort. Spatial patterns in effort allocation were compared with those in catch pe r unit effort (CPUE), indexed by both catch weight and profit. Average CPUE indexed by catch weight differed between fishing locations by up to 14 tim es. However, individual fishermen could only detect such large differences after 14 days of exploratory fishing because of the high variability in dai ly catches. Daily decisions on effort allocation are therefore not based on maximising CPUE but on minimising operational costs and risk. A very high proportion (88%) of the fishing trips were made within 8 km of the home por t, although the capacity of the purse seiners allowed for fishing in more p roductive areas much farther away. A 10- to 20-fold increase in operation c osts (travelling and local use rights) when fishing in other areas reinforc ed this behaviour.