From: cli@netcom.com (Concurrent Logic Inc)
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing
Subject: More on Decline of Fish
Keywords: fishing
Date: 16 Oct 92 20:19:39 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)


This is an article I saw in the San Francisco Chronicle on 10/12 which relates
to a recent thread in this newsgroup (please forgive the mistakes in typing)

There is a study that goes along with this article that can be obtained by
sending $2.50 plus $1 for postage and handling to 

Why People Catch Too Many Fish
Center for Marine Conservation
1725 DeSales Street, NW,
Washington DC  20036

Vanishing Species' Study Is No Fish Story - Glen Martin (In the Field)
-----------------------------------------

The Washington DC based Center for Marine Conservation has published a booklet
that is a must read for anyone even peripherally interested in marine issues.

"Why People Catch Too Many Fish: A discussion of fishing and economic 
incentives" is a hard-hitting anlysis of the essential reason behind the global
collapse of marine fisheries.  IT calls for basic changes - not just in
the way marine fish are caught, processed and marketed, but in the way
they are perceived.

Worldwide, the story is the same: fish disapperaing at a horrendous
rate. In the Atlantic, depleted species include cod, haddock, flounder,
Atlantic salmon, swordfish, bluefin tuna and most sharks. In the Gulf of
Mexico, king mackeral, Spansih mackeral, snapper, grouper and red drum
are vanishing.

Here on the Pacific coast, we're witnessing the extinction of blue
marlin and all five of our salmon species - chinook, coho, pink, sockeye
and chum.

The organization attributes the decline of fisheries to overfishing and
habitat degradation. Yet these are simply manifestations of a greater,
underlying problem, one the report calls the "Tragedy of the Commons"

The concept takes its theme from the seminal essay of the same name by
ecologist Garrett Hardin. 

Hardin noted that a herder who added a cow to "common" or communally
held grazing lands gained substantially. The loss in forage and soil
quality seemed initially small since it was shared by all his fellow
cattlmen.  Yet, since everyone added cattle whenever possible, the land
eventually lost its fertility and carrying capacity, causing great
hardship for all.

This is the basic problem with the development of public resources.
Hardin argues: There is no "invisible hand" of private ownership that
requires the husbandry and maintenance of the resource. Because no one
owns the resource directly, the root incentive is to exploit an
opportunity before anyone else in the group exploits it.

What holds true for grazing commons, says the center, hold true for the
seas. Free access to the sea and its fish has been a fundamental
principle of international law since the Roman Empire. Restricting the
take of any marine species, either through the granting of private
rights or governmental restriction, is a very recent idea in the history
of commercial fishing.

Yet it'sn an idea uniquely suited to our times. As the report makes
clear, free international access to global fisheries works against the
preservation of those same fisheries - the incentive is on maximinizing the
take, not conserving the resource.

Free access fishing works well if an optimum marine environment is
combined with a relatively small human population. Fish will produce
more fish, enough to offset the human take.

But the marine environment is no longer optimum, and the human
population is by no means small and stable - it's huge, and growing
exponentially.  The size of the international fishing fleet and the
sophistication of fishing technology make overfishing easy - indeed,
inevitable.

If global fisheries are to be sustained, the basic concept of fish as a
"free good" must change. This will take, the report makes clear,
unprecedented international cooperation. It will also involve measures
that will not likely to sit well with the worlds's fishing industries -
entry limits, gear restrictions, seasonal restrictions, landing taxes
and catch quotas on a scale far more rigorous than those in effect today.

The report contains graphs and analysis that demonstrate the effects
different restrictions would have on global fisheries.

All in all this is a compelling study that deserves a wide audience.
To obtain a copy of "Why People Catch Too Many Fish," send $2.50 plu $1
for postage and handling to:
Center for Marine Conservation
1725 DeSales Street, NW,
Washington DC  20036

Scott Evans
scott@clogic.com
(408) 522-8711 Concurrent Logic, Inc.