03 Jul Privatize the Seas?

Greg Easterbrook thinks Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs) hold the key to saving vanishing fish stocks. He makes the case in the current Atlantic, part of an article called 15 Ways to Fix the World. After describing a delicious halibut dinner in Girdwood, Alaska, he writes:

Good restaurant? Yes, but even better fishery management. About a decade ago, the Alaskan halibut catch was switched from a system of “catch all you can” in a very short period, to a system of tradeable permits. Now halibut season does not happen over a few chaotic days marred by colliding boats and overlapping lines, followed by freezing of the fish and a price bust as everything hits the market at once. Instead, fishermen holding an assured right, which they won on the free market (to bid for a permit, go to www.alaskabroker.com), spread their work over many months. Thus halibut coming to the market are just-caught fresh, and the price of fish is less likely to soar and plunge. And halibut stocks, spared a concentrated onslaught of fishing boats, are more sustainable.