Montain, Kevin: An Investigation of Fishing Communities’ Adaptation Strategies and Disappearances

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Title: An Investigation of Fishing Communities’ Adaptation Strategies and Disappearances

Name: Kevin Montain

Major: Economics

School affiliation: School of Arts and Sciences

Programs: Aresty – RA Program

Other contributors: Kevin St. Martin, Wenrui Zhao

Abstract: Fishing is an integral part of many coastal communities and economies. In order to understand the response of fishing communities to regulation and/or climate change, we examined a database of every commercial fishing trip spanning 1995-2015 to understand the response of different communities. We believe that the fishing communities are adapting to species shift by changing their location and/or changing species catch. We, also, believe that small boat groundfishing communities are extremely vulnerable to changes in their environment.
To understand the adaption strategy of communities, we are using a cluster analysis technique to understand the common traits amongst fishing communities in the northeast United States and to analyze the adaption strategy of these communities. In order to gain insight into the different economies of the small boat groundfishing community, we examined the annual: number of trips, average crew size, average diversity of catch, average distance traveled, and the average total catch per trip. Based on our current analysis, it appears that small boat communities are disappearing at a faster rate than other fishing mediums. The current research is directed towards understanding the common traits of these “disappeared communities” and where they went. Our research will provide deeper insight into how these communities are adapting to their changing environment and how these communities are changing at a community level.