A bioeconomic analysis of fishery management

Abstract

Throughout history, the effective management of common-property resources has continually eluded mankind. Typically, the problem of overutilization and overcapitalization of the world's fisheries has been approached from purely a biological standpoint. Little, if any, economic consideration has gone into the traditional modes of common recourse management. Consequently, existing programs have not been notably successful from both an economic or biological point of view. The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with the economic foundations of the common-property fisheries and to examine the implications of possible management strategies. It is hoped that with a theory of resource regulation capable in principle of predicting the reactions of the fishing industry, that the types of controls that are most likely to be successful in achieving biologically and economically desirable objectives can be identified.