On the Relationship Between Fishing Capacity and Resource Allocations

It is now well established both in theory and in practice that unrestricted access to a ‘common property’ fishery resource leads to potential economic benefits being dissipated in the cost of fishing. It is perhaps less widely recognized that this has been aggravated by countries seeking to maintain some historic share in a fishery and thereby being forced to maintain and even augment their investment. The normal economic ‘regulators’ are less effective when a fishery is maintained by Government support policies with the result that the resources themselves become more exposed to overexploitation and its consequences, e.g. the widespread collapse of Atlantic herring fisheries. Recognition of this risk finally led to the attempt to control exploitation by extended limits of national jurisdiction and by the regulation of the total allowable catch (TAC).