A small core fishery: a new approach to fisheries management

A new approach to fisheries management is suggested. Recognizing the great uncertainty and variability that affects the supply of fish, combined with the immobility of capital and labor in the industry, a small core fishery s hould be maintained with the capacity to catch only the quantity of fish th at it would be safe to catch as the stock approaches the lower limits of it s natural cycle. When fish are abundant, the excess would be auctioned to r isk takers who have neither a permanent commitment to, nor multi-year fishi ng rights in, the fishery. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserv ed.