The New Republic highlights the market-based system for fisheries management, which is already in use around the world. Market-based tools can alleviate problems associated with open-access management, derby style fishing, and the safety issues that arise from being able to fish only during certain times of the year.
The most popular method of market-based fisheries management is through the individual transferable quota (ITQ) system. Under the ITQ system, fishers are given quotas. Depending on the ITQ management scheme, there may be time constraints to when the quotas may be used, and the quotas can be traded, shared, or sold. Certainly, the ITQ system promotes efficiency in fisheries management.
The system works well for single-species management, but can be trickier when employed for multi-species management. Furthermore, regulation is still needed because people cheat, and fishers have been caught cheating. As a result, these market-based systems cannot stand alone, but they can add efficiency to fisheries management. From The Vine: The New Republic’s environment and energy blog
These regulations are a good example of the most common—and most inefficient—strategy for preventing commercial overfishing: making it harder to fish. Sometimes this takes the form of equipment restrictions—say, a requirement to use smaller nets. Sometimes it takes the form of a shortened fishing season. Either way, it doesn’t work. Commercial fishing boats that are forced to use smaller nets will generally just stay out longer, burning more fuel and taking up more crew time but coming back with the same amount of fish. A shortened fishing season just motivates fishermen to fish more intensely while they can—buying bigger, more powerful boats so they can get to the fishing grounds more quickly and catch more fish once they get there. This arms race—which often results in further reductions to the fishing season that, in turn, leave the powerful new boats sitting in port—benefits nobody.
On the Net: A Model of the Market for ITQ in Australia’s Multi-species South East Fishery
