Enforcement Issues in Selecting Fisheries Management Policy

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a frame of reference in which to compare fisheries regulations and to identify enforcement issues that can be important in practical policy application. The issues discussed include dockside vs. at-sea monitoring; ease of government implementation; period at risk when in noncompliance; ease and cost with which industry participants can achieve ability to comply; ease of distinction between honest mistakes, sloppy practices, and deliberate cheating; initial vs. continued compliance; ease with which requirements can be communicated; ease with which noncompliance can be disguised; ease with which agents can detect noncompliance such that it is admissable as evidence; degree to which personal or social benefits from compliance can be demonstrated; potential for citizen cooperation in identifying offenders; likelihood of encouraging rentseeking behavior by industry and of administrators being susceptible to it; ease with which illegal activities can be detected under various conditions; relative ability to which enforcement is efficacious with respect to different management objectives; and ease with which benefit-based priorities for enforcement can be identified.fisheries enforcement, fisheries management, fisheries rent, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,