Overfishing

This week we discussed a concept known as the Tragedy of the Commons in the marginal benefits do not equal the marginal costs. The example used in class was of fisheries and overfishing. We have seen a large increase in the number of fishermen in the United States and therefore there is a decrease in the quantity of "fish in the sea". There are theories regarding how to combat this issue and the current solution is to put a quota on the amount of fish a fisherman is allowed to haul in. While overfishing is a problem caused by the fishermen themselves I would argue that the lack of government intervention within the industry is causing the industry to struggle. Instead of having smaller quotas and a larger quantity of fishermen there should be larger quotas and a smaller pool of fishermen allowed to catch those fish. With the high cost of fuel and other costs associated with commercial fishing a smaller quota makes it much more difficult for a commercial fisherman to operate successfully and profitably. If fewer permits were allowed then the quotas could be raised therefore controlling not only the costs of the commercial fishermen but also the prices of the fish within the consumer market.