Difference between revisions of "The tragedy of the commons: Is the Newfoundland's cod crisis a good example?"

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==Intoduction==
 
==Intoduction==
  
The 1992 moratorium on fishing for Northern Cod (Gadus morhua), announced by the Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, marked a symbolic end to the way of life that had sustained Newfoundland’s outports for hundreds of years. It also marked the completion of an ecological regime shift, from an ocean ecosystem dominated by cod and other predatory groundfish, to one in which such fish are comparatively scarce, and lower-trophic-level invertebrates more common.
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::The 1992 moratorium on fishing for Northern Cod (Gadus morhua), announced by the Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, marked a symbolic end to the way of life that had sustained Newfoundland’s outports for hundreds of years. It also marked the completion of an ecological regime shift, from an ocean ecosystem dominated by cod and other predatory groundfish, to one in which such fish are comparatively scarce, and lower-trophic-level invertebrates more common.
 
Around 19,000 fishers and plant workers were directly affected and up to 20,000 other jobs were lost or harmed in the economic backlash<ref>Steele, D. H., Andersen, R., & Green, J.M. (1992). The managed commercial annihilation of northern cod. Newfoundland Studies, 8(1), 34-68.</ref>, while for rural Newfoundland it meant that the economic base of hundreds of communities, where the fishery was the only large employer, had been broken.
 
Around 19,000 fishers and plant workers were directly affected and up to 20,000 other jobs were lost or harmed in the economic backlash<ref>Steele, D. H., Andersen, R., & Green, J.M. (1992). The managed commercial annihilation of northern cod. Newfoundland Studies, 8(1), 34-68.</ref>, while for rural Newfoundland it meant that the economic base of hundreds of communities, where the fishery was the only large employer, had been broken.
  

Revision as of 18:01, 30 January 2008

Intoduction

The 1992 moratorium on fishing for Northern Cod (Gadus morhua), announced by the Canadian Federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, marked a symbolic end to the way of life that had sustained Newfoundland’s outports for hundreds of years. It also marked the completion of an ecological regime shift, from an ocean ecosystem dominated by cod and other predatory groundfish, to one in which such fish are comparatively scarce, and lower-trophic-level invertebrates more common.

Around 19,000 fishers and plant workers were directly affected and up to 20,000 other jobs were lost or harmed in the economic backlash[1], while for rural Newfoundland it meant that the economic base of hundreds of communities, where the fishery was the only large employer, had been broken.

The Tragedy of the Commons

One of the better-known theories of resource use, which might be applicable to the Newfoundland fishery, is the tragedy of the commons theory. Since it was first expounded by Garrett Hardin in 1968, the tragedy of the commons has been a popular theory in regards to common property. As part of this theory, assets such as fish, forest, or water resources are seen as "common property"-resources which can be used by anyone, yet no one truly owns. The tragedy of the commons comes in once competition for the resources commences.

Fishery in the tragedy of the commons scenario

In 1977, Ophuls created a model of a fishery in the tragedy of the commons scenario. He suggested that once the critical point was reached, either privatization or collapse would occur. It is easy to see how the collapse of the Newfoundland fishery could have been a tragedy of the commons, with the many groups and countries that were taking from the resource base. Given the conditions necessary for a tragedy of the commons, and its ultimate outcome, the Newfoundland cod stock collapse would then have to be considered inevitable and unavoidable. However, the proposition that the tragedy of the commons occurred in Newfoundland is not accepted by many environmental specialists, due to its simplistic arguments[2].

Overfishing

When the collapse of a resource base likes the Newfoundland cod stocks occur, the first and most obvious thing to look at is overexploitation of the resource. Many authors have cited overfishing as the cause of the cod stock collapse[3][4][5]. In the case of the Newfoundland cod, there were three distinct groups involved in harvesting the resource-local Newfoundland inshore fishermen, Canadian draggers and trawlers, and deep-sea foreign fishing vessels.

Inshore Fishermen

The local fishermen of Newfoundland are the group most closely identified with the tragic social and economic fallout from the closure of the fishery. This is not entirely without merit, as many families and communities were almost totally dependent on the fishery for their livelihoods. Nevertheless, their role in the collapse must be scrutinized. As Sinclair (1992)[6] points out, the structure of the inshore fishery and the methods that were used in it meant that these fishermen did not have the capacity to overfish the resource. They used fixed gear and small nets that could usually be manipulated by hand or with little mechanical assistance, never leading to anywhere near as high a catch as those taken by the offshore sector. As well, the crews tended to be composed of household and family members, and were usually not interested in running their operation as a business venture whose sole goal was the generation of profit. It was almost like a subsistence economy for many.

Canadian Deep-Sea Overfishing

Up until 1977, any vessel, Canadian or foreign, could fish just about anywhere off the coast of Newfoundland. In 1977 the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention set 200 mile exclusive fishing zones around many nations, including Canada and, hence, Newfoundland[7][8]. As Sinclair (1996)[9] noted, "In the first period [1970s], foreign trawlers were clearly responsible for overfishing, but in the second [post 1977], this part was played mainly by Canadian trawlers, despite the highly publicized contribution of foreign fleets" (p. 231). After 1977, there were large increases in the number of Canadian vessels, and they developed much more efficient methods of fish harvesting[10]. Technological changes would have a great impact.

Draggers

The 1970's saw the emergence of the dragger fleet in the Newfoundland fishery. (The terms dragger and trawler could be used interchangeably, but staying with colloquial Newfoundland usage, the term trawler will be saved for a more specific type, the factory freezer trawler.) Draggers are named for the large gill-nets that they drag along behind them, with tows on larger ones capable of netting 25,000 pounds of fish at once[11]. Obviously, this catch was much larger than could have been achieved by inshore fishermen and had truly moved into the realm of fishing for profit. True to this capitalistic nature, the 1980s saw both the number of draggers increase greatly, and the size of the vessels themselves increase, with many going to over 65 feet in length [12].

Even though this was starting to have negative effects on the inshore fishery, and the size of the fish that were caught was beginning to go down in the early 1980s[13], the dragger had become crucial to the Newfoundland fishery. The number of fish processing plants, promoted by the Newfoundland government for employment and development purposes, had also increased in the early 1980s (Sinclair, 1985). These fish plants had become dependant on the dragger fleet and its catches. In answer to cries from inshore fishermen to limit the number of draggers, dragger crews would say, "if the draggers go, the plants go, and if the plants go, then we all go"[14]. This was essentially true by the 1980s.

The dependence of plants on the draggers also brought an unusual socio-economic circumstance to the lives of inshore fishermen and their communities. As Palmer and Sinclair (1997)[15] noted, the plants employed the family members of fisherman, both inshore and off-shore. This income was necessary to support the constantly decreasing gains of the inshore fisherman, especially with inflation and the increasing costs of equipment. The voice against the draggers and their take of the fish was not, and could not be, very strong due to these concerns.

Trawlers

Trawlers have been used for hundreds of years; the 1499 banning of their methods in Flanders is evidence of their long, controversial history[16]. Trawlers, like draggers, drag their nets along the bottom of the ocean substrate, sweeping up everything in their path. It is far and away the most efficient way to catch groundfish like cod, but there are two problems: the ocean substrate gets ripped up, causing great environmental damage, and the amount of bycatch is great.

The most modern variant of the trawler, the factory freezer trawler, was (and still is for the species that are left) the method preferred by large companies like National Sea and Fisheries Products International, and by the foreign vessels that harvested off the coast of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland[17]. This is because they have large collection and storage capacities, and can stay at sea for weeks to months at a time, as the catch is actually processed on board and frozen until it can be landed. In 1983, the Canada-Newfoundland Fishing Agreement permitted these boats back into Canadian waters[18].

Smaller catches had been noted in the inshore fishery for some time, but the amount of fish caught in the industry increased greatly year by year until the late 1980s[19] when smaller catches and smaller fish being caught by dragger and trawler crews set off alarm bells with them (Harris, 1998). By then, Canadian overfishing had seriously damaged the cod stocks, and the path to the moratorium had already been well started.

Foreign Overfishing

Canadian media and government public relations people often cite foreign overfishing as the primary cause of the "fishing out" of the north Atlantic cod stocks. Many nations took fish off the coast of Newfoundland, including Spain, Portugal, other countries of the European Community (EC), the former Soviet Union, Japan, and Korea. All used deep-sea trawlers, and many often blatantly exceeded established catch quotas and treaty agreements[20].

Even after the Canadian moratorium on fishing in 1992, disputes between Canada, Spain and the EC over fishing in the regions adjacent to the 200 mile limit had to be settled by the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization. Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy vessels were often involved, and some foreign fishing boats were seized.

There can be little doubt that foreign overfishing was a contributing factor in the cod stock collapse, and that the capitalist dynamics that were at work in Canada were all too similar for the foreign vessels and companies[21].

Critique of the Tragedy of the Commons Model

The tragedy of the commons is a simplistic and fairly abstract model. Factors such as regulating mechanisms and community sanctions are not accounted for in the theory, as the assumption is made that common property means open access to all[22]. Many assert that what the theory describes is not a true commons, but an open access regime or free-for-all situation, where no authority has any control[23]. One would be hard pressed to find a scenario where a natural resource is being used and a true free-for-all situation exists, particularly in the more populated areas of the world. In most instances of resource exploitation the state plays a regulatory role, in order to maximize the capital gains from the resource and ensure conservation[24]. The inevitability of the tragedy of the commons theory then becomes questionable, as these regulatory mechanisms are not accounted for. In the case of the Northwest Atlantic fishery, the state (the Canadian Federal government) was heavily involved in the regulation and management of the fishery, primarily through the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). The role of government management/mismanagement is crucial to the discussion of the Newfoundland fishery and its collapse.

Government Management

The government's involvement in the fishery is best explained by a statement made by Sinclair (1992)[25], "Since 1977, the Government of Canada has been the manager of the fisheries. Instead of fish being a resource available to anyone with the means to catch them [i.e. a commons], they became state property, the rights to which were delegated in the management plans. Therefore, the management policy of the Canadian state has become a major factor in the condition of the industry since this time" (p. 93). The Federal government, through the DFO, controlled the number of fishermen through licensing systems, set quotas for different types of vessels, and, acting upon information from its own scientists, set the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) for the industry each year[26][27]. So quite obviously, a lot of the blame for the overfishing has to be placed there, as the DFO told the fishermen what they could go out and get. Acting upon faulty data , the DFO licensed too many fishermen and set TAC's that were too high[28].


The Tragedy of State Mismanagement

As the exploitation of the Newfoundland fishery was so predominantly guided by the government, the (mis)management of the fishery and its subsequent collapse match well with ideas put forth by Marchak (1987)[29] in her book Uncommon Property. McGraw (1996) calls this "the tragedy of state mismanagement" theory (unit 4, p. 3). In her book, Marchak argues that a fishery is not a true commons, as the fisher lacks management rights normally associated with property and common property. The state has appropriated the property, and makes all of the management decisions. Fishermen get told who can fish, what they can fish, and essentially, what to do with the fish once it is caught. In this regard then, when a resource such as the Newfoundland fishery collapses, it is more a tragedy of state mismanagement than a tragedy of the commons.

Other environmental factors that have been implicated include greater predation of cod by seals because of the decreased seal hunt, and an increase in the mortality of capelin, one of the cod's main food sources[30]. Many of these environmental factors had impacts on the Cod stocks, but one must still look back to government mismanagement and overfishing as primary causes. This is not to discount environmental factors, but to suggest that they probably factored in at the most inopportune time[31].

References

  1. Steele, D. H., Andersen, R., & Green, J.M. (1992). The managed commercial annihilation of northern cod. Newfoundland Studies, 8(1), 34-68.
  2. Mason, F. (2002). The Newfoundland Cod Stock Collapse: A Review and Analysis of Social Factors. Electronic Green Journal, 17.
  3. Sinclair, P. R. (1996). Sustainable development in fisheries dependant regions? Reflections on Newfoundland Cod fisheries. Sociologia Ruralis, 36(2), 225-235.
  4. Hannesson, R. (1996). Fisheries (mis)management: The case of the north Atlantic cod. Oxford, England: Fishing News Books.
  5. Finlayson, A. C. (1994). Fishing for truth: A sociological analysis of northern cod stock assessments from 1977-1990. St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Institute of Social and Economic Research.
  6. Sinclair, P. R. (1992). Atlantic Canada's fishing communities: The impact of change. In D. A. Hay, & G. S. Basran (Eds.), Rural sociology in Canada. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
  7. Hannesson, R. (1996). Fisheries (mis)management: The case of the north Atlantic cod. Oxford, England: Fishing News Books.
  8. Sinclair, P. R. (1988). The state encloses the commons: Fisheries management from the 200 mile limit to factory freezer trawlers. In P. R. Sinclair (Ed.), A Question of survival: The fisheries and Newfoundland society. St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Institute of Social and Economic Research.
  9. Sinclair, P. R. (1996). Sustainable development in fisheries dependant regions? Reflections on Newfoundland Cod fisheries. Sociologia Ruralis, 36(2), 225-235.
  10. Harris, M. (1998). Lament for an ocean: The collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery, A true crime story. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: McLelland & Stewart Inc.
  11. Palmer, C., & Sinclair, P. (1997). When the fish are gone: Ecological disaster and fishers in Northwest Newfoundland. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
  12. Palmer, C., & Sinclair, P. (1997). When the fish are gone: Ecological disaster and fishers in Northwest Newfoundland. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
  13. Palmer, C., & Sinclair, P. (1997). When the fish are gone: Ecological disaster and fishers in Northwest Newfoundland. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
  14. Palmer, C., & Sinclair, P. (1997). When the fish are gone: Ecological disaster and fishers in Northwest Newfoundland. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
  15. Palmer, C., & Sinclair, P. (1997). When the fish are gone: Ecological disaster and fishers in Northwest Newfoundland. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
  16. Berrill, M. (1997). The plundered seas: Can the world's fish be saved?. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Greystone Books.
  17. Harris, M. (1998). Lament for an ocean: The collapse of the Atlantic cod fishery, A true crime story. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: McLelland & Stewart Inc.
  18. This considerably "upped the ante" on the cod stocks, as one of these vessels, with a rotating crew of 65-70, can harvest and process 15,000 tons of fish in one year Sinclair, P. R. (1988). The state encloses the commons: Fisheries management from the 200 mile limit to factory freezer trawlers. In P. R. Sinclair (Ed.), A Question of survival: The fisheries and Newfoundland society. St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Institute of Social and Economic Research.
  19. Sinclair, P. R. (1992). Atlantic Canada's fishing communities: The impact of change. In D. A. Hay, & G. S. Basran (Eds.), Rural sociology in Canada. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
  20. Steele, D. H., Andersen, R., & Green, J.M. (1992). The managed commercial annihilation of northern cod. Newfoundland Studies, 8(1), 34-68.
  21. Mason, F. (2002). The Newfoundland Cod Stock Collapse: A Review and Analysis of Social Factors. Electronic Green Journal, 17.
  22. McCay, B. & Acheson, J. (1987). The question of the commons. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press.
  23. Marchak, P. (1987). Uncommon property. In P. Marchak, N. Guppy, & J. McMullan (Eds.), Uncommon property: The fishing and fish-processing industries in British Columbia. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Methuen Publications.
  24. Marchak, P. (1987). Uncommon property. In P. Marchak, N. Guppy, & J. McMullan (Eds.), Uncommon property: The fishing and fish-processing industries in British Columbia. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Methuen Publications.
  25. Sinclair, P. R. (1992). Atlantic Canada's fishing communities: The impact of change. In D. A. Hay, & G. S. Basran (Eds.), Rural sociology in Canada. Don Mills, Ontario, Canada: Oxford University Press.
  26. McGraw, D. (1996). Course manual, Sociology/Anthropology 3322 (7th ed.). St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada: Memorial University of Newfoundland, Division of Continuing Education.
  27. Palmer, C., & Sinclair, P. (1997). When the fish are gone: Ecological disaster and fishers in Northwest Newfoundland. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
  28. Mason, F. (2002). The Newfoundland Cod Stock Collapse: A Review and Analysis of Social Factors. Electronic Green Journal, 17.
  29. Marchak, P. (1987). Uncommon property. In P. Marchak, N. Guppy, & J. McMullan (Eds.), Uncommon property: The fishing and fish-processing industries in British Columbia. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Methuen Publications.
  30. Steele, D. H., Andersen, R., & Green, J.M. (1992). The managed commercial annihilation of northern cod. Newfoundland Studies, 8(1), 34-68.
  31. Mason, F. (2002). The Newfoundland Cod Stock Collapse: A Review and Analysis of Social Factors. Electronic Green Journal, 17.


See also

Internal links

Impact of fisheries on coastal systems

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

Common Fisheries Policy (CFP)

External links

Tragedy of the commons

What about the "Tragedy of the Commons"? Surely communal ownership will lead to overuse and environmental destruction? - Libertarian Socialist critique of the "Tragedy of the Commons"

Robert J. Smith (1981)Resolving the Tragedy of the Commons by Creating Private Property Rights in Wildlife. Cato Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 439-468.

FAO Fisheries Department

Fisheries Heritage website, Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland Region Statistical Reports