Frank and I at Can Tho University in Vietnam.
I tagged along with my host Frank to central Taiwan this past weekend. Frank is working with a group of local fisherman and oyster farmers to try to gauge how large of an impact a proposed offshore wind farm would have on their fishing activity. To do this, Frank is conducting a variant of a willingness-to-accept survey, a classic technique used frequently in environmental economics to place a dollar value on non-market resources like salmon runs or green space. Willingness to accept falls under a broader category of techniques called ‘contingent valuation.’ I think about the implications of contingent valuation a lot. One evening I found myself wandering outside of an abandoned cattle ranch deep in the 4th dimension. I sighed as the sun set and a dust plume on the horizon turned purple. I picked up a lizard from a crack in a broken field stone foundation and held it so our eyes met. I, in a moment of mild epiphany, said to the lizard then “a necessary evil it is—placing price tags on the priceless.”
Changhwa Fisherman’s Association Main Office. Taiwanese Fisherman Associations provide banking, social insurance programs, and extension services for their members and are expansive and impressive institutions. Due to the success of their banking division in particular, Changnwa fisherman enjoy above average benefit programs and high level marketing services. This building was one of five branches serving the association in Changhwa County and represents the fisherman Frank is working with.
The villages we visited sprawled gently westward off Highway 3. The eclectic and uniquely Taiwanese mix of rice farms, fish ponds, houses, and temples snaked slowly towards the ocean along a fortified embayment. I felt closer to home (the contiguous United States at least) than I had in a while, the dry October weather and Taiwan’s central mountains to the east gave the area a feeling reminiscent of California’s central valley.
A supped up motor-tricycle used for the culture of Crassostrea gigas, or Pacific Oyster. Bad-Ass. Pictured in the back are the floats that suspend oysters vertically in the water column as they hang off ropes.
The fun part about survey work with fisherman is that you have to drink with the fisherman
These kind guys served fish, pumpkin stew, dried squid and other pleasurably caloric gifts from the sea. Drinking is a relationship building ritual among fisherman in Taiwan and people take it quite seriously. I had to focus on expressing the Irish components of genome and channeling all of my Bates College training. I believe my capacity to avoid blushing while imbibing alcohol was taken as a challenge by my hosts.
Afterwards we went to a tilapia farm/seafood restaurant/ karaoke bar and the survey work continued.
Economists are nothing without data and sometimes you must go to extraordinary lengths to secure the right combo of 1s and 0s. To quote a man for whom I have abundant respect “anything for the survey!”
Aside from data collection, Frank’s work will create an important reference for monetary compensation procedures between energy developers and established fisherman. The pressing need for research in this area highlights the difficulty even highly developed institutions like Taiwanese Fisherman Associations (a close cousin of Japanese Fisherman Cooperative Associations) experience in delegating the use of the ocean bottom. Back home in Maine, that difficulty has been more than proved by a dysfunctional system of 2 year waits for aquaculture leases, widespread disinformation, executive office blunders, and a general frustration that characterizes aquaculture and ocean energy development. Spatial conflicts between energy or infrastructure developers, aquaculturists, commercial fisherman, recreational use, shore front property owners, and resident wildlife has been a major theme of my trip (which i will talk about more later). Sometimes these issues pose an insurmountable and necessary roadblock to a proposed activity. Yet, in my opinion, competing users often fail to reach an agreement not because they can’t agree, but rather due to the absence of a proper mechanism through which to mutually benefit. This missing link, usually buoyed by misaligned property rights, weak institutions, and skewed public perception, has doomed many an aquaculture or marine technology project. Monetary compensation scenarios like Frank is studying are one solution, but in no way are one-time payments a catch all.
A graphic depiction of a proposed bi-valve/macro algae culture system integrated with a wind energy installation. Multiple designs are depicted. Note the usage of the turbine column as opposed to a fixed mooring. Image Credit: Alfred Wegner Institute in Germany.
However, marine spatial conflicts do not always have to be zero-sum scenarios between traditional use and new development. In the Netherlands, work examining the potential for co-locating seaweed farms and offshore turbines has demonstrated that yes, massive infrastructure plopped in the middle of the ocean could allow for the production of more than just electricity and engage multiple marine users.
Long line cultivation of Laminaria japonica in China. Serious scale. Photo credit: http://www.seaweeds.ie
We met earlier in the day with the Vice Secretary of the fisherman’s association who discussed preliminary plans to pursue co-locating Gracilaria culture with the wind farm development. Species selection aside, the Vice Secretary’s comments were exciting and topical. The vast area needed to fulfill the potential of aquaculture in general and seaweed culture specifically, will require forms of ocean management that efficiently allocate space and facilitate conversations between potential and current users. Today, off-shore development for many forms of aquaculture is limited by the large capital cost involved in anchoring or securing enclosures or grow out structures to the sea-floor. If a large utility firm is making an investment in fixed infrastructure far off shore, there is no reason that an environmentally and operationally benign ocean farming venture such as shellfish or macro algae cultivation should not develop in conjunction. In a context receptive to co-location and integrative design, the wide eyed and well-funded dreams of the NREL’s halcyon years in the 1970s, such as the US Marine Biomass Program, (OK review HERE) seem a bit more feasible and potentially, cost effective.
I turned 23 last week! The institute of Applied Economics at National Taiwan Ocean University has welcomed me with open arms.
Sources not linked to in text
Buck, Bela; Smetacek, Victor. Project Rotor Sand. Alfred Wegner Institute. 2006. Web. (www.awi.de/de/forschung/neue_technologien/marine_aquaculture_maritime_technologies_and_iczm/projects/marine_aquaculture_projects/roter_sand)
Personal Communication. Paul Dobbins. June, 2014
Personal Communication. Paul Anderson. June, 2014
Durkin, Alanna. LePage Officials Tried to Scuttle State’s Done Deal on Wind, Statoil. Portland Press Herald. September, 2013
Lindhjema, Henrick and Mitani, Yohei. Forest owners’ willingness to accept compensation for Voluntary conservation: A contingent valuation approach. Journal of Forest Economics, Special Issue on Forest Non-Market Valuation. May, 2012
Brian-Wrack 