The new frontier of American fisheries governance

Throughout its history, America has viewed its oceans as vast fishery frontiers. These frontiers are suffering depletion as large amounts of fishing power combined with significant oceanographic changes are straining the limits of sustainability. The new ocean frontier is not the promise of undeveloped resources, but rather the challenge of undeveloped sustainable governance systems. This paper discusses the institutional transformation necessary to achieve sustainable governance. The first part provides an historical overview of the American use of resources as frontiers. The second part characterizes the frontier as an extreme form of resource use, contrasting it to its opposite ideal, the commons. The third part outlines behavioral differences between the users of frontiers and commons, the pioneers and shareholders. Building on the attributes of resource management under the two ideals, the fourth part of the discussion focuses on the necessary conditions and major challenges to developing the institutional capital required for sustainable US fishery management. The institutional capital needed for sustainable fisheries governance is comprised of several pieces: (1) A perception of the fishery as an integrated ecosystem; (2) an identification of shareholders; (3) an allocation of decision making power and responsibility which vests all interests and internalizes the source of control; (4) incentive structures to promote long-term management; (5) management skills among fishery interests; (6) management processes that promote adaptability to change. The final section provides conclusions and an assessment of the progress US fishery management has made in institutional capital development. Pressures of scarcity are forcing US fisheries management to evolve away from the frontier ideal, but the development of the institutional capital necessary for sustainable fishery governance is incomplete.