Case Studies on the Allocation of Transferable Quota Rights in Fisheries
Description:... In moving towards, or adopting, rights-based management, how quota will be allocated is one of the earliest operational decision that fisheries administrators face and it is inevitably controversial. This report, consisting of 23 studies, describes how the initial allocations of transferable fishing (effort) or fish (catch) quotas have been done by a variety of fisheries management regimes. The studies include two from the European Union (the United Kingdom and the Netherlands), one from Iceland and three descriptions from the Maritimes of Canada. Of the Canadian studies, that for herring provides an historical account of the introduction of quotas in the management procedures of the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic (ICNAF), the precursor of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO). Three studies are presented for fisheries along the eastern seaboard of the United States, though that for red snapper describes a fishery in which the actual implementation of the programme was thwarted by the imposition of the moratorium on individual transferable quotas (ITQs). The account for South Africa describes a difficult process in transition for a specific fishery. Nine accounts are included from Australia, two of which describe fisheries managed by the Commonwealth Government through the Australian Offshore Constitutional Settlement (the Northern Prawn Fishery and the fishery for southern bluefin tuna). The other six accounts of Australian experiences describe lobster fisheries in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania and fisheries for abalone in Western Australia and Tasmania. Two accounts describe more traditional finfish fisheries, that of the Southeast Trawl Fishery and the trap and line fisheries in New South Wales. An omnibus account is given for the allocation process of quotas in New Zealand. In the Western Pacific, accounts are given for the Pacific halibut and sablefish fisheries in Alaska, the variety of fisheries in British Columbia including these last two species and the fishery for Patagonian toothfish in Chile.
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