Territorial Use Rights: A Rights Based Approach to Spatial Management

• Main Authors: Criddle, Keith R., Herrmann, Mark, Greenberg, Joshua A.
• Other Authors: Utah State University Department of Economics
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Hosted by Utah State University Libraries 2000
• Subjects: territorial; rights; spatial management; Golden King Crab; Lithodes aequispinus; Aleutian Islands
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/eri/193; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1192&context=eri

The advantages of increasingly fine scale management of fisheries may be offset by increased enforcement and management costs, reduced catch-per-unit-effort and increased running costs for harvesters, and by an intensification of the race for fish. An alternative to regulated open access would be to lease or permanently transfer, spatially defined harvest privileges. Exclusive spatial use privileges have been used to control grazing on public rangelands, and the exploitation of forest, petroleum, and mineral resources on state and federal lands and on the submerged lands of the outer continental shelf. Individual and community based spatial use privileges have been used to stint access to fish and shellfish resources. This paper explores the potential economic and management consequences of transferable and nontransferable, individual and community based spatial use privileges in the context of the Aleutian Islands golden king crab (Lithodes aequispinus) fishery.