The Earth's oceans are overfished,
despite more than fifty years of
cooperation among the world's fishing
nations. There are too many boats chasing
too few fish. In Saving Global Fisheries,
J. Samuel Barkin and Elizabeth DeSombre
analyze the problem of overfishing and
offer a provocative proposal for a global
regulatory and policy approach.
Existing patterns of international
fisheries management try to limit the
number of fish that can be caught while
governments simultaneously subsidize
increased fishing capacity, focusing on
fisheries as an industry to be developed
rather than on fish as a resource to be
conserved. Regionally based international
management means that protection in one
area simply shifts fishing efforts to
other species or regions. Barkin and
DeSombre argue that global rather than
regional regulation is necessary for
successful fisheries management and
emphasize the need to reduce subsidies.
They propose an international system of
individual transferable quotas that would
give holders of permits an interest in the
long-term health of fish stocks and help
create a sustainable level of fishing
capacity globally.
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