Common Property Rights in Fish and Water Quality: The Oyster Fishery of the Chesapeake Bay

Abstract

"This paper presents a case history of the evolution of the property rights structure to the Chesapeake Bay oyster grounds. The first objective is to explain the reasons for the creation and persistence of this mixed property rights system during the past 100 years. The second objective is to evaluate these two alternative perspectives in terms of their ability to explain the evolution of property rights to the Chesapeake Bay oyster grounds. The final objective is to draw implications from this history for the role of the social scientist in research and policy advising on oyster fishery management. Before discussing the history of the current property rights system, we provide a brief discussion of oyster biology and a more detailed description of the current property rights system."