Rights Based Fisheries Management in Canada

Abstract

The conflict between efficiency and maximization of employment colours all aspects of fisheries management in Canada, including implementation of rights based fisheries management regimes. Even though rights based systems are strongly based on considerations of efficiency, sometimes at the expense of maximization of employment, a number of such regimes have been put in place in recent years. These are generally little known and little analyzed. This paper attempts to address this gap in our knowledge by surveying such schemes. For a number of reasons outlined in the paper, rights based regimes in Canada have not usually involved transferability or divisibility of quotas. Nonetheless, efficiency gains have been made where such schemes have been implemented. These are illustrated in case studies of the Atlantic offshore groundfish fishery and the Atlantic purse seine herring fishery.