Individual transferable quotas as a fisheries management tool

Abstract

Fisheries management faces a new era. Markets, in the form of individual transferable quotas (ITQs) and growing global integration of fish markets, will increasingly provide the organizing and regulatory principle for many fisheries. Whether ITQs and global markets are a panacea or Pandora's box for organizing and managing fisheries is, as yet, unclear, and requires additional experience to fully evaluate. This article reviews the workings and expected benefits of ITQs, the origin and concept of ITQs, the problems they were designed to address, world‐wide experience and literature on ITQs, and the problems and prospects for ITQ management. Particular attention is given to the growing importance of markets as the primary organizing principle for many fisheries, including the roles of ITQs and increased global integration of fisheries markets.