Ocean Zoning and Spatial Access Privileges: Rewriting the Tragedy of the Regulated Ocean

Abstract

"For the past thirty years, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (the Act) has served as the primary legislative mechanism for conserving fish populations in United States marine waters. At the time Congress passed the Act, many of those populations were in jeopardy, the result of decades of virtually unregulated industrial-scale fishing. Throughout the first twenty years of its implementation, the Act was highly ineffective in rebuilding stocks and in preventing other stocks from becoming overfished. During this period, implementation of the Act by the eight Regional Fishery Management Councils focused more on maintaining fishing opportunities for fishermen than it did on maintaining healthy fish populations."