driven reels which control the fishing line. Average crew size provides

a good aggregate measure of "gear contact" with the resource stock since

each crewman usually operates only one reel. The use of average vessel

size measured in gross registered tonnage is also a reasonable represen-

tation of the capital input in the fishing power equation. In the reef

fishery, factors such as sea conditions and weather can impair or pre-

vent altogether the fishing process. Vessel size is a factor which

affects the ability or certainty of the fishing process to be undertaken.

This measure also is related to the duration of fishing trips and to a

lesser degree, the distance a vessel can travel to fishing grounds.

Thus, the effect of vessel size on fishing power is seen to be related

to the ability of vessels to undertake and sustain the fishing process.

 The choice of the functional form was in part due to the ease with

which the Cobb-Douglas type function can capture non-linear production

relationships without a large loss in degrees of freedom. In addition,

this functional form also facilitates testing the hypothesis that the

fishing power function exhibits constant returns to scale. Given that

fishing power is a theoretical construct, it may be that a doubling of

all inputs doubles fishing power. Equation (43) as specified permits a

direct test of this hypothesis. Finally, the ji, j = 1, 2, provide a

convenient means of judging the relative importance of each input with

respect to the "production" of fishing power. A priori, one would

expect that average crew size should have a larger influence on fishing

power than does vessel size, given its relationship to "gear contact"

with the resource stock.