Implications of fisheries allocation policy on anticipated climate change impacts

Abstract

Rights-based fisheries management – a management system that apportions harvesting rights of fisheries resources to individuals or groups of individuals based on pre-determined allocation criteria – has become more common in the past three decades due to its potential to achieve resource sustainability while improving economic efficiency. Policies that determine access and allocation of fishing opportunities are often complex as they are designed to achieve multiple management objectives. Climate change alters distribution and productivity of fishery resources, reducing the ability of many of the existing history-dependent allocation policies to achieve the original management objectives. This paper aims to develop an empirically grounded typology of allocation policies, synthesizing practical and academic understanding of fisheries allocation. We examined allocation policies of 54 randomly selected fisheries managed by rights-based management instruments. We use this typology to examine possible climate change impacts and responses on harvester-level allocations. Examining the 54 cases, we find that 89 % of these fisheries allocate fishing opportunities at least partly based on historical catch or access, and only 5 % use socio-economic criteria such as ethnicity or an equal share principle. We find 87 % of the systems are managed by catch quotas, and their ability to meet biological, social, and economic objectives depends on stock assessment quality. Yet, climate-informed stock assessments are critically lacking assessment and quota updates can take multiple years, creating a mismatch in sustainable and realized fishing opportunities. The developed typology and discussions provide useful terminology and lessons for managers and practitioners to prepare for climate challenge impacts.