ABSTRACT
Tradeable fishing quotas are often introduced to increase the economic efficiency of the industry rather than to ensure the ecological sustain-ability of the fishery. As Fernando González Laxe (2005: 4) notes in the journal Marine Policy: ‘the individual transferable quota is an economic tool used to guarantee the economic efficiency in a fishery; that is, it is not a tool to guarantee either the biological sustainability or the social equity’, so we should not be surprised if an individual transferable quota (ITQ) system does not protect fish species or result in social equity.
