MATCHING FISHING CAPACITY TO THE CATCHES AVAILABLE: A PROBLEM IN RESOURCE ALLOCATION
分析了渔业中捕捞能力过剩导致资本回报为零的经济问题，提出了一种估算所需船队规模的方法，并指出缺乏激励和执法机制是渔业管理的核心难题。
Fish populations are examples of open‐access renewable resources, and they are harvested by hunting. Fishery management is analogous to the management of the cropping of a wood, in which the trees are invisible, and keep moving around. Economic factors drive fishing fleets to a state of excess capacity and zero return to capital employed. Some form of regulation seems to be essential to enable a viable fishing industry which can regenerate its own capital to survive. The problems of management are exacerbated by excess capacity: it would be desirable if the size of the fishing fleet were matched to that required to catch the fish available. A novel method for estimating the size of fleet for which full‐time fishing opportunities exist has been developed, but no mechanism exists to stimulate the development of the fleet towards that size. This, and the absence of a proper system of enforcement of internationally agreed quotas are the principal problems of fishery management.