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Bananafish

Monday, May 19th, 2003

A moon or so ago on this site, we looked at bananas and fishes, and spun them into a lesson on the tragedy of the commons.

Looks like we’re a moon ahead of the curve. A new study shows that the largest fish species have been fished down 80% or more. And Ronald Bailey writes at TCS that the only solution is to de-commonize the commons, and begin a private property scheme for oceania.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2003 at 4:13 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

9 Responses to “Bananafish”

  1. #1 |  Frank N |  May 20th, 2003 at 6:03 am

    Dibs on the mudhole!

    “impressive catches of Giant Bluefin Tuna in the Mudhole …such catches included the capture of two 1000-pound Giant Tuna in one day” –Captain Dulanie

    This article is all swell but it doesn’t address issues like the migratory nature of many fish, that every nation with a commercial fishery must be involved, who is policing the waters(good luck) and if anyone thinks the Asian fisheries are going to join a limiting program like this where you place a quota on catches again I say,good luck. This would be as effective as a war on drugs.

  2. #2 |  Bart |  May 20th, 2003 at 8:41 am

    I have no doubt that there is a bit of the “tragedy of the commons” going on in the fishing industry, but I doubt things are as bad as the study suggests.

    I mean if we have really “fished down 80% or more of the largest fish species”, wouldn’t it be harder and harder for fisherman to catch those species? Wouldn’t the prices for those fish be skyrocketing? That would be the real proof that we’ve overfished the commons, and I personally haven’t seen that.

  3. #3 |  FDL |  May 20th, 2003 at 3:42 pm

    Bart:

    due to the tremendous overcapacity in the fishing industry, stocks tend to collapse very suddenly. there’s lot of precedent for this, including the famous Cannery Row in Monterey (herring).

  4. #4 |  Bart |  May 20th, 2003 at 4:29 pm

    FDL:

    That is an interesting point. But if we are at 90% of depleted fish reserves now, at what point will the sudden collapse occur? 91%, 93%??

    I’m not saying you aren’t correct, FDL. I’m saying the reports alarmist claims aren’t correct. I question a study that seems more interested in grabbing worldwide headlines with doomsday taglines than with putting out objective facts. That’s my point.

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