department of natural resources. Similar strategies have been used in more traditional cultures for centuries, notes Costello. ring fisheries in Canada and After decades of supporting a New Zealand, Australia, and IceAlaska have had to shorten seathriving fishing economy, the land have applied the method sons to no more than 10 or 15 Newfoundland cod-fishing induswidely, and the U.S and Canada minutes, notes Keith Criddle, a try collapsed in the early 1990s. have also adopted it to a lesser exfisheries expert at the University Overfishing had depleted stocks tent. The method has helped rescue of Alaska Fairbanks. to levels that could no longer susthe halibut-fishing industry in Alaska tain the cod population or the But shortening the season has not and the red snapper industry in the fishers’ livelihoods. Nearly two Gulf of Mexico. decades later, and despite Costello and his colregulations on fishing, the leagues set out to investiAtlantic cod is still struggate how fishing quotas gling to survive. affect the trajectory of The story of the Atlantic fisheries. To do this, he cod is a classic example of and his colleagues anaa larger phenomenon that lyzed 11,135 fisheries has ecologists and econoaround the world. By commists worried about the paring the two different possible collapse of fishertypes of fisheries in terms ies on the planet. But a of their catch statistics and recent study in the journal management styles from Science offers a glimmer of 1950 to 2003, the team hope for the future. Profound that the fraction of viding fishers with the catch-share fisheries that right incentives can reThe Atlantic cod population is still struggling to make a collapsed was about half duce the chances of colcomeback from near depletion from decades of overfishing. that of the non-catchlapse and encourage share kind. prevented overfishing, and fish sustainable fishing, it concludes. “This is a pretty striking result!” stocks continue to be depleted. AcFrom an analysis of global fishing Costello remarks. The researchers cording to UN Food and Agriculture practices, the study finds that were expecting to find that catch Organization 2006 estimates, 25% of fisheries are less likely to collapse shares can benefit the fisheries a global fisheries are overexploited, when fishers have individual fishlittle bit, he explains. “But...we didn’t depleted, or recovering from depleing rights, in the form of catch guess that they could prevent coltion. And in 2006, a study in Science shares. lapse.” The benefits of catch sharing predicted that all fisheries would colMost fisheries around the world have been well documented in the lapse by 2048. are run on what’s called a “race literature, says Criddle. The new to fish”. Managers size up stocks, As fish stocks started to decline in study does “a really nice job of pullestimate how much fishers are the 1960s, managers and researchers ing that kind of information together likely to catch, and then set a seabegan to explore sustainable forms and representing it,” he adds. son length for each fishery. “[The] of fisheries management. One stratBut catch sharing is not a silver problem...is that within that sysegy that started to become popular bullet for failing fisheries, say experts. tem every fisherman who has a in the 1970s was catch sharing, or Fisheries management should look permit is allowed to catch as fishing quotas. In this system, manbeyond sustaining livelihoods and much as they can,” says Christoagers consult scientists and set the stocks of fished species and toward pher Costello, the lead author of total annual catch limit for a fishery. conserving marine biodiversity. And the paper and a resource econoEach fisher then gets a fixed percentthese goals can be met only by intemist at the University of Califorage of the total allowable yield. “The grating catch sharing with ecosysnia Santa Barbara. reason this changes the incentive for tem-based fisheries management, the fishermen is that now they have Equipped with larger crews and Costello says. this asset that they own; no one else more boats or bigger ones, com—RHITU CHATTERJEE can take it away from them,” says peting fishers race to maximize Costello. This leads to better stewtheir catches. Overfishing results, ardship of the resources, says Anand the managers progressively drew Rosenberg, a fisheries expert at shorten the length of the season the University of New Hampshire’s in subsequent years. Some herNOAA
Incentives to fish sustainably
10.1021/es803154u
2009 American Chemical Society
Published on Web 11/19/2008
January 15, 2009 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 9 239
