NATURAL-RESOURCE EXPLOITATION AND THE ROLE OF NEW TECHNOLOGY - A CASE-HISTORY OF THE UK HERRING INDUSTRY

Technological change in the UK herring industry took place rapidly aft er 1965, due in part to the active encouragement given to fishermen to switch from drift-netting to pelagic trawling and purse-seining. The adoption and diffusion of these modern methods of capture stimulated a major expansion of output, but this very success was undermined by th e depletion of the fish-stocks on which the industry depended, In the case of the West of Scotland herring fisheries, which were especially important to UK fishermen, the decline in fish-stock biomass caused ve ssel catch-rates to fall after 1973. The failure of international fish eries management, which acted as a permissive factor in the intensific ation of fishing effort, also had important economic implications as i t resulted in the dissipation of resource-rent. The Authors calculate that the maximum sustainable 'rent' which could have been generated fr om the West of Scotland herring fishery was approximately $14 millions per annum at 1976-equivalent prices. The resource-rent effectively fi nanced the overcapitalization of the fleet and the decline which follo wed, and it is the speed with which this occurred that most distinguis hes the herring fishery from others where technological change has tak en place. The article concludes by arguing that, although the UK publi c authorities (notably the Herring Industry Board) might reasonably be criticized for pursuing a development strategy which resulted in econ omic and biological over-fishing, the international regime of fisherie s management which prevailed at the time gave them little choice but t o adopt a pro-active approach to technical innovation.