Political Economy, Profit Maximization, and Homesteading the Eastern Bering Sea Fishery for Walleye Pollock
By Keith R. Criddle & Seth Macinko
ABSTRACT
Despite their apparent economic benefits to harvesters, Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs) have only been adopted in three US fisheries. During the 1996 reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, Congress blocked implementation of IFQs in two other fisheries. This Congressional action led directly to the emergence of a new institutional structure, the fishing cooperative. Cooperatives offer the advantage of eliminating production externalities that may remain under IFQ programs with relatively large numbers of shareholders. The speed with which these cooperatives were created and their financial success make it is unlikely that new IFQ programs will be developed in federally managed US fisheries. Cooperatives offer the advantage of eliminating production externalities that may remain under IFQ with relatively large owner classes.
KEYWORDS: IFQs
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