It seems like every year Europe’s fisheries are on the verge of collapse and the various countries in the region get together for another last minute round of quota cuts. Of course, although Europe has been cutting its quotas for years, it never seems to do much to help the fisheries actually recover, though it does give Europeans the impression that the politicians are actually doing something about the problem.
The odd thing is the Europeans never learn. Brendan May, chief executive of the Marine Stewardship Council, sums up the European governments’ attitude toward fisheries quite well,
For as long as it has been profitable to over-exploit, there have been no incentives to fish in a way which allows the environment, and therefore the fishing industry, to prosper. The common fisheries policy is right in one sense: you have to treat common resources with common solutions. Those who argue that it should not be a common policy are several apples short of a picnic. But there’s a total absence of any incentive to behave in an environmentally responsible way, and that’s the heart of this problem.
The reason there are no incentives to fish in a responsible way, however, are precisely because fisheries are manages as commons. A better way to deal with fish stocks would be to convert the commons into private property which would provide the incentives that May wants to see. It is admittedly more difficult to set up a private property regimen in fish — who can swim over a wide territory — than it is for something like cattle, but it can be done.
Of course, the European nations won’t even try, because to them the complete failure of previous regulations to solve the problem simply means that they need more regulations. Next year, they’ll be back at the table proposing even more limits.
Sources:
EU fisheries ‘face collapse’. Alex Kirby, The BBC, December 17, 2001.
Europe slashes fishing quotas. The BBC, December 18, 2001.
Q&A: Europe’s fishing row. The BBC, December 18, 2001.
Fish head fast for oblivion. Alex Kirby, December 18, 2001.
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