Fishing Quotas and Catch Shares

How giving fishers secure shares of a total catch can end the race to fish, with evidence from Iceland, New Zealand and elsewhere.

If open access causes overfishing, one solution is to limit the total catch and give fishers secure rights to a share of it. This approach is known as catch shares or individual transferable quotas, often shortened to ITQs.

How it works

Scientists and regulators set a total allowable catch for the season, based on the health of the stock.
The total is divided into shares, allocated to fishers or fishing companies.
Each holder can catch only their share.
Shares can usually be bought, sold or leased.

Why it helps

Catch shares change incentives:

No race to fish: because each fisher’s share is secure, there is no need to rush out and catch fish before others do. Fishers can choose the best time to fish, often catching fewer, higher-value fish.
Stake in the future: the value of a share depends on the health of the stock, so holders have an interest in conservation.
Efficiency: shares can move to the most efficient boats, reducing the number of vessels.

Evidence

New Zealand introduced a national quota management system in 1986, and Iceland adopted a similar system around the same time. Research by Christopher Costello, Steven Gaines and John Lynham, published in Science in 2008, studied over 11,000 fisheries worldwide and found that those with catch shares were much less likely to collapse.

The end of the derby

Before catch shares, the Alaskan halibut fishery had become a "derby": the season was cut to just a few days a year, and boats raced out in all weather, risking lives to catch as much as possible. Fish flooded the market at once, lowering prices. After catch shares were introduced in 1995, the season stretched over months, fishing became safer, and fishers could sell fresh fish when prices were better.

Concerns

Critics note that catch shares can concentrate ownership in a few large companies, as shares are bought up, and can hurt small-scale fishers and traditional fishing communities. Some systems address this by limiting how many shares one owner can hold or reserving shares for communities.

Thinking catch shares privatise the ocean

Catch shares give rights to a portion of the catch, not ownership of the sea or the fish in it. Governments still set the total catch and enforce the rules. The shares are a tool for managing a shared resource.

Key takeaways

Catch shares set a total allowable catch and give fishers secure shares of it.
They end the race to fish and give holders a stake in conservation.
A 2008 study of over 11,000 fisheries found catch shares made collapse much less likely.
Concerns include concentration of ownership and effects on small-scale fishers.