expression. The interpretation of the output elasticities, however,

serve to make the appearance of increasing returns a reasonable result.

 The primary role of the fishing power function in relation to the

empirical catch equations involves weighting the nominal effort compo-

nent (vessels). The basic notion here is that a standardized measure of

fishing effort can be derived by weighting vessels in the fishery by

certain input characteristics. Such a standardized measure of fishing

effort is extremely important, not only in analyses such as the current

study, but also in estimating Schaefer (1954) type sustainable yield

functions. By weighting vessels according to their relative fishing

power with respect to some base period, a standardized measure of fish-

ing effort such as standardized vessels can be obtained.

 The estimated fishing power indices for each state participating in

the GMRFF for the years 1957 to 1975 are shown in Table 3. The fishing

power index is defined by


 I Xlit .9635 it .4601(76)
 I = ( X X ) (76)
 Xlb X2b


where Xlb and X2b are average crew and vessel size in the base year and

state. In Table 3, Florida's 1960 input composition serves as the base.

Examination of the fishing power indices illustrates that Florida

vessels in 1975 are characterized by the lowest average fishing power

per vessel in the fishery. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that in

1975, Florida vessels possessed only about 75 percent of the fishing

power of vessels in the base period. Since 1967, Mississippi vessels,

on average, have had the greatest fishing power. Mississippi vessels in

1975 had slightly over four times the fishing power of Florida vessels.