Decommissioning of Wadden Sea shrimp fishing licences: Impact analysis of management measures on the fishery

This study is part of the overarching socio-economic impact analysis of fisheries project. The central research question is: What have been the economic impacts of the 2021 decommissioning scheme on Wadden Sea shrimp fishing licenses on the fishing cluster. By looking at the short-term effect with quantitative and qualitative data analysis and modelling, little economic effect of the decommissioning scheme on the fishing cluster has been observed. By increasing the effort of the remaining fleet, the effort on the Wadden Sea did not change significantly, lower catches were compensated by good shrimp prices with as a result a positive economic result in the year after the decommissioning. In the long term, the fishery is now limited with a number of licences around 20% lower than the prior number of active vessels, with no possibility of increasing again.