The New-Member Problem in the Cooperative Management of High Seas Fisheries

Abstract

This paper discusses the threat that new members pose to the cooperative agreements in the management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks and the possible solutions to this problem. In particular, the main solutions proposed in the fisheries literature are explored—namely the "transferable membership," the "waiting period" and the "fair sharing rule." The analysis is illustrated by a typical highly migratory species: the northern Atlantic bluefin tuna. The application of the analysis to the bluefin tuna fishery case study shows that, at present, the threat of the new members is not sufficient for the breakdown of the cooperative agreement. The simulation results for this case study show that both the "transferable membership" and the "fair sharing rule" solutions solve the potential new member threat.