Students from the University of Queensland Economics Department have won an international agricultural and economics prize for the second consecutive time.
Dr Alistair McIlgorm won the biennial Australian Agricultural Economics Society prize for best PhD thesis in natural resource economics in Australia and New Zealand in 1995-96.
The 1993-94 prize was won by University of Queensland PhD graduate Dr John Tisdell.
Dr McIlgorm's thesis, entitled An Economic Analysis of the Australian East Coast Tuna Longline Fishery , was supervised by Professor Harry Campbell and funded by the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation.
The study analysed and compared the costs and production techniques of Australian and Japanese longliners operating in the tuna fishery in the 1980s. It also assessed the fishery's economic performance and sustainability.
Longline fishing is favoured for tuna fishing and involves long ropes with hooks attached floating at different depths in the sea. No nets are used and fish are harvested when lines are revisited after being left out overnight.
Dr McIlgorm, a senior fisheries consultant with the Australian Maritime College's private research company, AMC Search Ltd, said the thesis suggested a cut-back in fishing effort for Swordfish and Black Marlin but found catches of other species sustainable.
Dr McIlgorm and Professor Campbell recently published two papers based on the research including a paper in the American journal Marine Fisheries Review looking at the performance of the Australian fleet.
The paper concludes that part of the fishery north of Sydney could be developed further and suggests fishers in the area wanting to increase their catch use purpose-built vessels, patrol the longline, leave the longline in water for a longer period and fish in waters around 21-22 degrees Centigrade.
The second paper, to be published in the British journal Marine Policy, compares Australian and Japanese fleet technology. The Australian fleets use lightweight equipment and catch mainly surface-swimming species such as Yellowfin and Albacore while the Japanese boats use heavier equipment and catch a higher proportion of the deeper-swimming species such as Bigeye.
On the basis of international trade theory, the paper concludes the two fleets can share the industry efficiently.
Dr McIlgorm completed his thesis while working as a senior lecturer at the Australian Maritime College in Launceston, Tasmania. He is now based in Sydney.
Dr Tisdell won the 1993-94 prize for his thesis entitled Estimating socially just outcomes to trade in water markets: a co-operative game theory approach, supervised by Economics Department Associate Professor Steve Harrison.
A former lecturer with the Management Studies Department at the University of Queensland's Gatton College, Dr Tisdell is now a lecturer in the School of Environmental Studies at Griffith University.
For more information, contact Dr McIlgorm (telephone 02 9579 2659), Professor Campbell (telephone 3365 6559) or Dr Tisdell (telephone 3875 7110).
