What works well and why: evidence from fishery-management experiences in OECD countries

A summary is presented of the efforts by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to determine which fishery-management measures are effective in conserving marine fisheries and in producing significant economic and social benefits, based on analyses of more than 100 fisheries in 24 OECD member countries. The evidence on management experiences is organized to focus on outcomes predominantly related to the resource, harvest, market, social, and administrative aspects of each fishery. The outcomes are correlated with management measures and characteristics of the fishery system to determine the conditions under which the measures conserve fishery resources and improve economic performance. Among the many findings reported are that the empirical evidence clearly shows that total allowable catch management results in a race-to-fish, with all its attendant effects; individual quotas are an effective means of controlling exploitation, of mitigating the race-to-fish and most of its attendant effects, of generating resource rent and increased profits, and of reducing the number of participants in a fishery. Also, it is clear that time and area closures have not been effective in assuring resource conservation, although conservation might well have been poorer without them.