Who Gets The Fish? Proceedings Of The New England Workshops On Rights-Based Fisheries Management Approaches

Declining fish stocks, more restrictive management measures, and decreasing profitability in some sectors have resulted in a movement toward limiting access to fishing, a first step in rights-based management. This privilege to fish, or user-rights approach, can then take on a variety of forms depending on how exclusive the right becomes, the level or entity to which the right is allocated, the transferability mechanisms attached to the right, and the criteria used for assigning the right initially. In June 2003, Sea Grant Fisheries Extension programs in Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island hosted a series of workshops titled, 'Who Gets the Fish? Rights-Based Management Approaches.' Each of the workshops focused on presentations by four speakers who provided a general introduction to the concept of rights-based management, an in-depth view of the different types of rights-based approaches, and case study information on two forms of rights-based management � community management and cooperatives. This document is a composite summary of the four workshops and includes an overview of each of the presentations along with the accompanying comments, questions, and answers generated at each workshop. Also included is a summary of panel discussions that took place in Maine and Rhode Island.