Can Quotas Save Stocks?

Abstract

Managing fisheries by limiting the amount of fish fishermen can take out of the sea seems at first sight a perfectly rational procedure. Catching too much fish damages stocks and their capacity to reproduce, so restricting catches is the obvious answer. Simply set a total allowable catch (TAC) for each stock, and when that is caught call a halt. But when one considers what a political and bureaucratic quagmire has to be created to implement and enforce such a policy, and at what enormous cost, its appeal is sharply reduced. I propose to examine the way the system works within the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and in particular within the UK, although some countries outside the EU have more successful experiences with TAC/quota systems than is the case in Europe.