Zonal attachment of fish stocks and management cooperation

Abstract

This paper studies the incentive-compatibility of distributing fish quotas on the basis of zonal attachment of stocks. Two countries sharing two fish stocks are studied, with the zonal attachment of both stocks varying randomly. The base case is one of symmetric stocks, where one country is the dominant player for one stock. While each country has weak or no incentive to cooperative on the stock in which it holds only a minor share, both countries would have incentives to cooperate on both stocks if they are jointly managed. If one country is the major player with respect to both stocks, the minor player has weak or no incentive to cooperate. The incentive to cooperate is not any stronger if the variations in the zonal attachment of the two stocks are negatively correlated.