Five Stages in the Evolution of the Market-Oriented Fishery
By Anthony ScottAbstract
Regulation for fish-stock conservation was rare. Beginning in the 1800s it was realized that sea fisheries were exhaustible. National politicians copied local salmon and oyster laws, and gradually moved on to regulation of ground fish, using closures and mesh-size controls. There was a sense of emergency, and stock-preservation management displaced market-oriented management.
By the 1950s the regulatory regimes of many fisheries were being fine-tuned. First, some openings and size controls were again much influenced by price opportunities and preferences. Second, as regulation intensified, the simple administrative permit became a primitive property right, especially under "limited licensing."
Since the 1970s, the licence is being transformed into an ITQ regime. With individual property, management's emphasis is on multiple-stock survival at low fishing costs. But, once again, the market is not forgotten, for holders have freedom to choose when, at what price, they will land their fish.
Furthermore, smallish ITQ fisheries are being transformed into a kind of fisherman-governed "sole ownership." Now the "owners" are more in the position of farmers: their aim is less to guard a herd under sustained yield than to produce a high-quality yield at low costs for sale when the price is right.
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