ABSTRACT
The oceans provide a challenge for free market environmental solutions. Outside the territorial limits of sovereign countries, only weak treaties limit the use of ocean resources for fishing, mineral or energy development, shipping, and garbage disposal. Ocean fisheries provide the classic case of the tragedy of the commons, because many species of fish are mobile and access is difficult to monitor. The preferred free market environmentalism approach to the fishery problem is to allow the establishment of property rights. Fishery regulators determine total catch based on biological sustainability and economic factors. In the New Zealand case, government officials argue that part of the income from the abalone fishery is a “windfall” to quota holders and belongs to the government. And several indigenous groups argue that their rights to the fishery supersede non-indigenous quota holders and, therefore, the quotas should be turned over to them.
