Capturing the Commons Devising Institutions to Manage the Maine Lobster Industry Hardcover - 2003

From the publisher

In this illuminating new book, James M. Acheson examines the management of the lobster industry. He shows that resource degradation is not inevitable. Indeed, the Maine lobster fishery is one of the most successful fisheries in the world. Catches have been stable since World War II, and record highs have been achieved since the late 1980s. According to Acheson, these high catches are due, in part, to the institutions generated by the lobster-fishing industry to control fishing practices. Rational choice theory frames Acheson's study. Rational choice theorists believe that the overexploitation of marine resources stems from the common-pool nature of these resources. In fisheries, what is rational for the individual fishermen can lead to disaster for the society. The Maine lobster industry is very unusual in that it has solved a series of such problems by creating three different sets of regulatory controls: groups of lobster fishermen have generated informal territorial rules; some groups have been able to devise rules to control the number of traps they fish; and the industry as a whole has been very successful in lobbying Maine lawmakers to enact formal conservation legislation. I