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Science 19 September 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5896, pp. 1678 - 1681
DOI: 10.1126/science.1159478
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Reports

Can Catch Shares Prevent Fisheries Collapse?

Christopher Costello,1* Steven D. Gaines,2 John Lynham3{dagger}

Recent reports suggest that most of the world's commercial fisheries could collapse within decades. Although poor fisheries governance is often implicated, evaluation of solutions remains rare. Bioeconomic theory and case studies suggest that rights-based catch shares can provide individual incentives for sustainable harvest that is less prone to collapse. To test whether catch-share fishery reforms achieve these hypothetical benefits, we have compiled a global database of fisheries institutions and catch statistics in 11,135 fisheries from 1950 to 2003. Implementation of catch shares halts, and even reverses, the global trend toward widespread collapse. Institutional change has the potential for greatly altering the future of global fisheries.

1 Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, 4410 Bren Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
2 Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
3 Department of Economics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.

{dagger} Present address: Department of Economics, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2424 Maile Way, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: costello{at}bren.ucsb.edu

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