Table Of ContentRights Based Fishing
NATO ASI Series
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Series E: Applied Sciences -Vol. 169
Rights Based Fishing
edited by
Philip A. Neher
Department of Economics,
The University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Ragnar Arnason
and
Nina Mollett
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration,
University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
Kluwer Academic Publishers
Dordrecht / Boston / London
Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division
Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on
Scientific Foundations for Rights Based Fishing
Reykjavik, Iceland
June 27 - July 1, 1988
Library of Congress cataloging In Publication Data
Workshop on the Scientific Foundations for Rights Based Fishing (1988
: Reykjavik, Iceland)
Rights based fishing: proceedings of a Workshop on the Scientific
Foundations for Rights Based Fishing, Reykjavik, June 27-July 1,
1988 I edited by Philip A. Neher, Ragnar Arnason, Nina Mollett.
p. CIII. -- (NATO ASI series. Series E, Applied sciences; no.
169)
Inc 1u des i nde,.
1. Fishery law and legislation--Congresses. 2. Economic zones
(Maritime law)--Congresses. 3. Territorial waters--Congresses.
1. Neher, Philip A., 1934- II. Arnason, Ragnar, 1949-
III. Mollett, Nina. IV. Title. V. Series.
K3894.6 1988
343' .07692--dc20
[342.376921 89-2550
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-94-010-7568-8 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-2372-0
DO\: 10.1007/978-94-009-2372-0
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All Rights Reserved
© 1989 by Kluwer Academic Publishers
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No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo
copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the copyright owner.
To Professors Anthony Scott and James Crutchfield, whose teachings and
insights have proved an inspiration to a generation off ishery economists.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
I. Foundations of Rights Based Fishing 5
Conceptual Origins of Rights Based Fishing 11
Anthony D. Scott
Comments - Gary D. Libecap 39
Is Fishery Management at a Turning Point? Reflections on the
Evolution of Rights Based Fishing 47
R. Bruce Rettig
Comments - Daniel D. Huppert 65
II. Traditional and Territorial Use Rights 69
The Organization of Traditional Inshore Fishery Management
Systems in the Pacific 73
Kenneth Ruddle
Comments - Theodore Panayotou 86
III. Exclusive Economic Zones 95
Coastal State "Rights" Within the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone 97
Donald McRae and Gordon Munro
IV. Individual Transferable Quotas: Part One 113
The Development and Implementation of New Zealand's ITO
Management System 117
Ian N. Clark, Philip 1. Major and Nina Mollett
Comments - Daniel D. Huppert 146
Comments -James E. Wilen 150
viii
Applied Fisheries Management Plans: Individual Transferable
Quotas and Input Controls 153
David Wesney
Comments - Peder Andersen 182
v. Individual Transferable Quotas: Part Two 185
Conceptual Constructs for Practical ITQ Management Policies 191
Lee G. Anderson
Comments - Gary B. Libecap 210
Minimum Information Management with the Help of Catch Quotas 215
Ragnar Amason
Comments - Parzival Copes 242
VI. License Limitation 247
Rent Generation in Limited Entry Fisheries 249
James E. Wuen
Comments - Rognvaldur Hannesson 263
VII. Enterprise Quotas 265
Enterprise Allocations: The Atlantic Canadian Experience 267
Cheryl A. Fraser and J. B. Jones
Comments - Michael Gardner 289
The Enterprise Allocation System in the Offshore Groundfish
Sector in Atlantic Canada 293
Michael Gardner
VIII. Fee Fishing 321
Development, Economics and Fishing Rights in the South Pacific
Tuna Fishery 323
Geoffrey Waugh
Comments - Kenneth Ruddle 349
IX. Empirical Modelling 351
Individual Transferable Quotas in the Southern Bluefin
Tuna Fishery: An Economic Appraisal 355
Gerry Geen and Mark Nayar
Comments - Parzival Copes 382
ix
Price Response and Optimal Vessel Size in a Multi-Output Fishery 389
Trond Bj~mdal and Daniel V. Gordon
Comments -John M. Gates 412
An Econometric Study of Regulatory Enforcement and Compliance
in the Commercial Inshore Lobster Fishery of Massachusetts 415
Jon G. Sutinen and John R. Gauvin
Comments - Daniel V. Gordon 429
X. Theoretical Modelling 433
Should Quotas be Based on Shadow Value Rather than Weight?
A Numerical Study on the Icelandic Cod Fisheries 435
Thorkell Helgason
Comments - Trond Bj~mdal 457
Catch Quotas and the Variability of Allowable Catch 459
Rognvaldur Hannesson
Fixed or Variable Catch Quotas? The Importance of Population
Dynamics and Stock Dependent Costs 467
Rognvaldur Hannesson
Comments - Peder Andersen 481
The Economics of Predator-Prey Harvesting 485
OlaFlaaten
Fishing Quota Management with Multiple Stock Objectives 505
Philip A. Neher
Comments -James E. Wden 525
Author Index 529
Subject Index 533
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We wish to thank Rognvaldur Hannesson and Anthony Scott, who served as consul
tants to the editors and were unstintingly generous with their time. We also wish to
thank Daniel Karvonen and Ramon Baker for their fine assistance in preparing the
manuscript, as well as our dedicated typists, Hildur Bjamad6ttir and Al5alheil5ur
6feigsd6ttir.
The conference was a NATO Advanced Research Workshop, and the Scientific
Affairs Division of NATO was a major financial contributor to the workshop.
Additional support was provided by the Icelandic Ministry of Fisheries, the
Norwegian Fisheries Research Council, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and
Oceans, the University of British Columbia, the University of Iceland, and the
National Bank of Iceland.
xi
PREFACE
The genesis of this conference was on a quay of the port of Bergen in March 1985.
Ragnar Amason suggested to Phil Neher a small, mid-Atlantic conference on recent
developments in fishery management. In the event, more than twenty papers were
scheduled and over one hundred and fifty conferees were registered. Logistical
complications were sorted through for a summer 1988 conference in Iceland.
The really innovative management programs were in the South Pacific; Aus
tralia and New Zealand had introduced Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs); and
Iceland, Norway and Canada were also experimenting with quotas. It seemed to the
program committee (Rognvaldur Hannesson and Geoffrey Waugh were soon on
board) that these quotas had more or less characteristics of property rights.
Property rights were also taking other forms in other places (time and area licenses,
restrictive licensing of vessels and gear, traditional use rights). The idea of rights
based fishing became the theme of the conference.
Earlier conferences had led the way. A series of FAO conferences, especially
the Ottawa Conference held in 1962 (Hamlish 1962) and conferences building
foundations for the Law of the Sea Convention, conveyed three messages. First, fish
stocks were being afforded protection, if any at all, by policies which favoured equal
access for anyone who wished to dip a net or drop a line. Global quotas with
artificially short seasons and some gear restrictions were traditional management
methods in use. Second, management objectives were driven mainly by biological
criteria, and stocks were generally managed to support maximum sustained yield.
Finally, competition among user groups of fishers to harvest from available stocks
inevitably eroded the effect of management efforts to achieve conservation
objectives (see Grover 1980, p. 29) for a good example). Many important stocks
were seriously depleted.
Early efforts by economists to define fish stocks as natural, renewable assets,
subject to control by techniques of capital asset management, had little practical
impact. We have in mind the University of British Columbia symposium (1970) on
the economics of fisheries management (Scott 1970).
It appeared for a while that restrictive licensing of vessels and gear could con
trol fishing power of fleets, relieve pressure on stocks, and permit longer seasons.
This was the topic of the Powell River Conference held in 1979 (Pearse 1979). In
the event, license programs largely failed in their purposes. But licenses did acquire
market values, thereby establishing the precedent that an administrative instrument
(the license) could acquire characteristics of a property right.
Papers delivered at the 1980 FAO Vichy Conference (Grover 1980) offered lit
tle evidence that much had been learned about fisheries management since 1962.
xiii
