If there is, indeed, a winter bluefin rush, we had better think of ways to conserve the scarce resource. In fact, we’d better be thinking along these lines for any commons (that is, unowned resource).
Property rights give people positive incentives to conserve. That’s why we (well, reasonable people) don’t worry about tree shortages, because timber is privately managed. Only in the developing world – where property rights are up for grabs – do you get the awful clearcutting you hear mainstream environmentalists bang on about.
In any case, our coasts are unowned commons… So you’d think there’d be no property rights solution. But there is (tradable fishing permits/quotas). BTW, 90 percent of environmental problems can be solved by applying property rights and the common law.
-Max Borders
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