Why and How Blue Mussel Growers Succeeded in Developing a Long Term Co-Management Process to Use Marine Open Access Resources?

Abstract

"The large marine ecosystem in the Bay of Mont St. Michel has been utilized by mussel (Mytilus edulis) growers for more than 40 years (10,000 metric tons.yr-1). Mussels are grown in bags attached to wooden stakes which are supported in the sediment. Despite the prevailing semi-privatized system to allocate the public tidal flats to growers, most of them initially behaved as free-riders, increasing the number of stakes to take advantage of the fugitive marine productivity. Water circulation and plankton productivity were sufficiently altered to weaken mussels feeding together with parasitic over-infestations, resulting in a drastic decline in production and rapid dissipation of the resource rent. To challenge this tragedy of open access, leaders of the grower association together with State managers and scientists developed a co-management process. By regulating the use of space and providing appropriate technical support and financial incentives, they succeeded in counterbalancing this dramatic backlash. The dilemma was solved by: (i) expanding the available space allowed for settling new stakes further to the East bay and (ii) removing forty percent of the stakes within each lot. Mussel growth increased so that the total production doubled between 1970 and 1990."