Academic lawyer Tom Appleby lifts the lid on 50 years of the muddy mismanagement of a public resource.

Quota in the fishing sector is a thorny issue. Recently, Tory backbencher Amber Rudd asked the UK Fisheries Minister Richard Benyon whether there would be a reallocation of VIID cod quota in the light of a failure by the over 10 meter sector to use all of theirs year on year.  Benyon responded that quota hadn’t been reallocated traditionally for a variety of reasons:

• Quota holders may be retaining their quota to fish later in the year, or to use as swap currency to acquire different quota.

• The prospect of such reallocation can encourage a race to fish, which could mean that a fish stock is targeted out of season, thus increasing effort and discards of other stocks.

• Such reallocation may also impact on prices due to a surplus of fish on the market.