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For the last four years a provision in the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act has denied regulators the ability to use Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs), synonymous with IFQs (Individual Fishing Quotas), in managing marine resources. In an ITQ system, fishermen and corporations with proven records in the industry are allocated individual quota shares, or percentages, of the harvestable resource - essentially the fisheries pie is divided between a fixed number of harvesters.
The moratorium on ITQ management systems, initially established to allow an examination of their consequences, will expire on October 1. While small boat fishermen in New England, wary of resource monopolization through ITQs, call for extending the moratorium, advocates claim ITQs can be adapted to meet the needs of small traditional fishing communities.
ITQs amount to privatization of a public resource, something Garret Hardin predicted 32 years ago. In his 1968 essay, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Hardin made the case that fishermen, competing to further their own ends in the wild catch fisheries, would overfish many stocks. Hardin's essay offered two solutions: government regulation or privatization.
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"In New England, many fishermen are depending solely on lobsters," said Elizabeth Thompson, a lawyer for the EDF. "Senator Ted Stevens [of Alaska], made a comment when he was in Boston, asking, 'where are the cod?' He said he was initially against ITQs, but now he says nothing else is working."
Countries such as Canada, Iceland, and New Zealand began instituting ITQ programs about twenty years ago. But U.S. fishermen, especially in New England, have been wary of the negative effects of ITQs.
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"Landings-based management does not save fish," said Carla Morin, of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, which promotes community-based management. "It doesn't address ecosystem issues such as where, when and how you fish," said Morin. "ITQs are not conservation tools, they are economic tools that lead to consolidation of the resource in the hands of a few major players."
Rev. Ted Hoskins of the Stoning- ton Fisheries Alliance, joined a contingent of fishermen who took their case to
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