The Bush administration's announcement Sept. 20 that it intends to encourage rights-based fishing represents significant progress. The administration wants 8 U.S. marine fisheries to adopt a form of "dedicated access privileges" by 2010. These privileges include individual fishing quotas and fishing cooperatives, among other rights-based tools. PERC (the Property and Environment Research Center) has been working with Environmental Defense and the Reason Public Policy Institute to acquaint policy makers with the environmental and economic benefits of such rights.

“The administration has taken an important step in supporting these tools, which throughout the world have led to environmental improvements, safer fishing, lower costs, and higher profits for fishermen,” says Donald R. Leal, PERC Senior Fellow and author of Fencing the Fishery and other publications featuring rights-based fishing tools.

“We wish that the administration had gone further by setting an earlier deadline and by making a firmer commitment to dedicated access privileges, but this is a start. Where they have been adopted, these privileges (DAPs) have proven to be a tool that is superior to government regulation,” Leal adds.

PERC has long been an advocate of rights-based tools for preventing overfishing. A variety of names have been applied to these tools. The broadest term is "dedicated access privileges" (DAPs), which include individual fishing quotas (IFQs), fishing cooperatives, and others. IFQs give fishermen a right to a percentage of the total allowable catch within a fishery. A fisherman who holds a 0.1 percent share in the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery is entitled to 3,000 pounds of snapper for the season when the total allowable catch is 3,000,000 pounds. Because IFQs are transferable, current holders can adjust the size of their fishing operations by buying and selling quotas; those wishing to enter a fishery can buy or lease quotas from current holders.

IFQs have been implemented in fisheries in the United States (such as the Alaska halibut fishery), Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. Because IFQs assure fishermen that they have a right to catch a specific amount of fish each season, fishing seasons have been lengthened and as a result the dangerous rush to capture the most fish as fast as possible has been eliminated. Accidents have declined and overfishing has been reduced.

PERC has worked for several years with the Reason Foundation and Environmental Defense to inform policy-makers about the benefits of individual fishing quotas (IFQs). A PERC/Reason Foundation Web site (www.ifqsforfisheries.org) highlights the benefits of rights-based fishing around the world.

In recent years, several foundations, including the Sand County Foundation Bradley Fund for the Environment, the Alex C. Walker Charitable Trust, the Charles G. Koch Foundation, and the Wilkinson Foundation, have supported research and education into the potential for dedicated access privileges.

For more information about IFQs, DAPs, and PERC’s study of rights-based fishing, contact Jane Shaw at shaw@perc.org or 406-587-9591 or see www.ifqsforfisheries.org.