Staking out an inshore commons: Pound-netting in Gilded Age America

• David Ress ^[1]
  1. [1] University of New England

     University of New England

     Australia

     
• Localización: International journal of maritime history, ISSN 0843-8714, Vol. 33, Nº. 1, 2021, págs. 3-15
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Controversy over the expansion of pound netting in the largest US fisheries of the late nineteenth century marked an early conflict between those who considered fisheries a commons and those who sought to establish property rights in a fishery. Pound-netters physically staked out a specific part of the sea for their exclusive use, and their conception of their property rights resulted in significant overfishing of important food – and oil – fish species. Here, just as with the commons that many economists argue inevitably result in over-exploitation of a resource, regulation was rebuffed and the fisheries collapsed.