In Search of a Critical Conversation about Catch Shares, Sectors, Management, and Ideology.


Abstract: This seminar is based on a recent report to the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries entitled A New England Dilemma: Thinking Sectors Through. Topics to be explored include popular emphases on devolution of authority, co-management, and stewardship as a function of ownership. The current push for “catch shares” provides a context for the conversation. It is argued that such systems do work but not because of popular beliefs about their basis in rights or links to stewardship. The lack of an accurate causal understanding of “catch shares” has reached epidemic proportions. It is argued that the current embrace of such systems actually presents an impediment to truly market-based systems and is based on an ideology that has been shown to be literally bankrupt (in the world’s financial systems). Further, the current framing of catch shares runs counter to growing international emphasis on human rights-based fishing as opposed to private property rights-based fishing. Alternatives for catch shares, not alternatives to catch shares, are considered.