Fishers like Jesus Sucajel from Hambongan Island, Inabanga, Philippines, do not need charts and statistics to validate the depletion of marine resources. He sees it in diminishing daily catches, lost income and increases in illegal fishing methods like those using dynamite and cyanide.
(from the Rare Blog)

The UCLA Journal of Environmental Law & Policy has just published an excellent overview of various approaches to fisheries management. The authors, Jonathan Adler and Nathaniel Stewart, look at various top-down regulatory approaches to fisheries protection, many of which have failed. They also examine the results of various catch share approaches to fishery management, concluding that such property-based solutions generally lead to better resource management.

Read the paper to better understand the importance of aligning economic and ecological incentives, and explore ways that long-term security of fishing rights can help prevent overfishing and promote ecological stewardship.

When catch shares were first into place, California's fishermen were limited to certain numbers of certain species and would end up throwing perfectly good fish overboard, logging it as dead bycatch in order to avoid punitive fines. Now, the catch-share program has aligned incentives, allowing fishermen to trade species they've already caught. These tradeable quotas allow fishermen to avoid punitive fines, thereby ensuring less waste in terms of biomass.

To complement the shift in policy, one fisherman has designed new trawling equipment to further minimize the environmental impact of his trade. Giuseppe Pennisi has designed light-trawl gear which floats just above the sea floor, rather than dragging across the bottom. Thanks to the reduced drag, this new method reduces fuel costs while preserving bottom-dwelling fauna.

Read more about it at the Monterey County Weekly.