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July 10, 2006
Here fishy fishy
I'm a believer in individual transferable quota (ITC) programs
as a way to prevent overfishing and protect our maritime commons. ITC essentially works like this. First the government (or on the behalf) performs an audit of the fishery's sustainable fishing catch. That catch is broken up into shares and those shares are sold at auction. The shares represent a not only a current quota, but also a right to a percentage of the total allowable quota. If conditions improve allowing a larger catch, they get more, if they get worse, they get fewer. Often these share rights include the right to exclusive or semi-exclusive use of certain portions of the fishing grounds. This creates the incentive to fish in a way that controls costs, maintains fishing stocks, and even encourages their development. They haven't been a roaring success but ITC have been used in New Zealand and Iceland.
California has a transferable permits (similar but worse) system in several varieties of fish., and it has been used in an interesting manner for marine wildlife protection. The Nature Conservancy has been buying up these permits, then leasing them back to fishermen. The trick
is that they have covenants in their leases that prohibit the very most damaging fishing techniques. While not as good as ITC systems, I salute The Wildlife Conservatory for their use of free markets and voluntary association to archive their goals.
Posted by OneEyedMan at July 10, 2006 10:26 AM
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