CASE STUDY: JMP009
Fish Story
Not Too Many Fishes in the Sea
by Dr. DeWayne Derryberry, Idaho State University, Department of Mathematics
Key Concepts: Histograms, normal quantile plots, log transformations, inverse transformation, paired t-test, Wilcoxon signed rank test
Dr. DeWayne Derryberry
Idaho State University
Objective
Use the DASL Fish Prices data to investigate whether there is evidence that overfishing occurred from 1970 to 1980.
Background
Seafood exists in the open seas, which are owned by no one. Because of this some economists believe that seafood is harvested in numbers much higher than is optimal. Although the theory is quite complicated, the basic idea is simple. Since no one owns or manages the open seas, those who fish cannot gain, in the long run, by refusing to harvest today. If I refuse to harvest fish today, the stock of seafood will not grow, because someone else will harvest the fish if I don’t. (These ideas, discussed in detail in microeconomics, are a discussion of public goods versus private goods). Because of this, over time, seafood is overharvested and becomes increasingly scarce.
If supplies of seafood are dwindling, seafood will becomes more expensive, relative to other goods, over time.
The Task
Use the DASL Fish Prices data to investigate whether there is evidence that overfishing occurred from 1970 to 1980.
Source: DASL (The Data and Story Library),
lib.stat.cmu.edu/DASL/Datafiles/FishPrices.html