enTwenty-first21st century fisheries management: a spatio-temporally explicit tariff-based approach combining multiple drivers and incentivising responsible fishing

Traditionally fisheries management has focused on biomass and mortality, expressed annually and across potentially large spatial management units. The Ecosystem Approach requires more indicators at finer scales. Quotas and effort control are largely inappropriate for ecosystem drivers, but remain our principle tools. Incorporating ecosystem targets (e.g. habitat damage, mammal bycatch, biodiversity impacts) would need additional and potentially conflicting management tools. This would further complicate an already confusing micromanagement approach which benefits neither industry, nor science, nor policymakers. Here we present a simple management approach that provides incentives for “good behaviour”. Fishers would be given a number of credits, here called RTIs (Real-Time Incentives), to spend according to spatiotemporally varying tariffs per fishing day. Tariffs could be based on fish stock and ecosystem targets. The fisher could choose how to spend his RTIs, e.g. by limited fishing in sensitive areas, or by fishing much longer in less sensitive areas. The data used to set the tariffs would be transparent to assist in that choice. This RTI system does not prescribe and forbid, but instead allows fishers to fish wherever and whenever they want; ecosystem costs are internalized and have to be taken into account by fishers in their business decisions. We envisage the approach to be stand-alone for the fleets operating under the scheme, with no need for catch/landings quota. The approach could facilitate further devolution of responsibility to industry and matches well with industry-developed sustainable fishing plans proposed in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The development of these fishing plans and the enhanced focus on spatial issues would provide greater opportunities for incorporating fishers’ local knowledge and allow for more adaptive and robust management.