Use of property rights in fisheries management
FAO Fisheries technical paper Series, Vol. 404/1

In the old days, when offshore stocks were large and fishing fleets were small, there was no call for either private ownership or government regulation. As the growing cities provided increasing markets for both fresh and salted fish, more and larger vessels put to sea for longer periods. By mid-19th century, ocean fishing activity had expanded to a dangerous level and each year's fishing left the stock a little smaller than the year before. In the last decades of the 20th century governments' advice began to come not only from perturbed fishermen, but also from scientists. Today, regulations based on biological theories can be found everywhere. The FishRights99 Conference provided the perfect opportunity to address a new challenge: use property rights to manage fisheries in ways that are ecologically sustainable and ensure Fish for the Future. The present volume includes the lectures presented during the two-day Mini-course, grouped in two sections. The first section deals with the concepts, theory and practice relating to the use of property rights in fisheries management. Topics covered in the second part include management infrastructure for rights-based fishing, legal planning for management of fisheries using property rights, the administration of fisheries managed by property rights, the administration of enforcement mechanisms for rights-based fisheries management systems, and fisher participation in rights-based fisheries management: the New Zealand experience. The second major section of the present volume consists of the papers presented during the three-day Core Conference. These papers covered the perspectives of governments in introducing and administering such methods of management and the political, conservation, social and economic consequences, industry, and the wider community and other involved stakeholders.