ABSTRACT
Although bad luck might have have once contributed to a fishless day at sea, today it is more likely that bad incentives are the culprit. In January of 2013, a 489-pound bluefin tuna sold for $1.76 million at the Tokyo fish auction. High prices encourage fishers to “mine” the fish stock in a kind of marine gold rush. Without property rights in future fish today’s fishers have no reason to limit their harvest to allow fish to grow larger and reach reproductive stage since more and larger fish only serve to encourage new boats to enter the industry.
