Dynamic fishing with endogenous habitat damage

The nature of fishing activities is such that marine habitats can be deteriorated when employing destructive fishing gear. This makes even more complex the determination of sustainable fishing policies and has led some authors to propose dynamic models which take into account this habitat degradation. In this work, we analyze in detail one of these models, an extension of the single-species Gordon-Schaefer model to two state interrelated variables: stock of fish and habitat. The model assumes that stock and carrying capacity are positively linked, and that the fishing activity has a direct and negative impact on the carrying capacity. We extend and characterize Clark's most rapid approach optimal solution to this case.