THE PARADOX OF FAIRNESS - THE IMPACT OF ESCALATING COMPLEXITY ON FISHERY MANAGEMENT

In the US and Canada, a commitment to fairness leads to overly complex management regimes that contribute to overexploitation, We illustrate the pattern of increasing complexity in the Scotia/Fundy groundfish f ishery in Atlantic Canada, the New England groundfish fishery and the Fraser River salmon fishery in British Columbia, all of which or decli ned in recent Increasing complexity proceeds inexorably in publicly ma naged fisheries, However, the alternatives of transferring ownership t o individual fishers or fishing communities appear not to be viable so lutions, Rather, we suggest a comanagement approach which may be unfai r to some fishers but will greatly reduce the pressure to overfish, (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.