ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to show that fishery regulation is one of those spheres of economic policy where what is the best thing to do depends on what can be done. This is usually illustrated by the analogy that, if one wants to climb as high as possible but cannot climb all the way up the highest mountain, the best thing to do may be to walk in the opposite direction and climb to the top of a lower one. If the optimum optimorum is to be reached (the highest mountain scaled), then regulation must extend not only to the scale but also to the mode of operation.
