The increasing popularity of market-based fishery management such as the ITQ system has brought rationalisation, increased efficiency, and profitability in the industry. Regulation has, however, increased the quota concentration and taken its toll on traditional small-scale fisheries, reducing employment opportunities in rural areas depending heavily on the fishing industry.
These tendencies are raising political concerns all over the Nordics. Governments and NGOs are considering ways to safeguard the livelihoods of small-scale fishermen, sometimes at the expense of market-based mechanisms and overall economic value creation.
Our team is specialised in advising governments and private clients on quota and license auction design, reform strategies in the fishing industry, and in using economic modelling to clarify the trade-offs between economic efficiency and political objectives.