The performance of fisheries management systems and the ecosystem challenge.

This Chapter has three objectives. First, it presents a modest update of the evidence used in the 1997 study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that attempted to show which management measures are effective in conserving marine fisheries and producing significant economic and social benefits. In its original report, the OECD found that competitive total allowable catch (TAC) management results in a race-to-fish, with all its attendant effects; and that individual fishing quotas are an effective means of controlling exploitation, of mitigating the race-to-fish, of generating resource rent and increased profits, and of reducing the number of participants in a fishery. In addition, the OECD evidence indicated that time and area closures have not been effective in ensuring resource conservation, though conservation might well have been poorer without them. The update indicates that most of the original results are upheld. The second objective is to report on recent trends in policy since 1995, with a focus on ecosystem-based management policies. These include large marine ecosystem (LME) programmes, marine protected areas (MPAs) and the development of alternative rights-based regimes. Thirdly, the chapter examines the governance challenges of ecosystem-based fisheries management. We argue that the political marketplace that produces fisheries management policies tends to be biased against conservation and long-term economic benefits. The chapter concludes with recommendations for reforming our fishery governance institutions.