National Marine Fisheries Act 1970 created National Marine Fisheries Service as division of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) -- replaced Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife

but a little-known war changed the nature of fishing forever!

"Cod War" between Iceland and United Kingdom (several shots actually fired!) in early 1970's over fishing rights in waters near Iceland -- began when Iceland extended its fishery jurisdiction from 3 miles (the long-standing international standard) to 200 miles from coast

this move excluded fishing boats from other nations (including UK) from rich fishing grounds near Iceland -- it also allowed Iceland to manage this area prudently to prevent over-fishing -- UK finally gave up . . . and extended their own fishery jurisdiction to 200 miles!

Iceland's action was intended to prevent a recurrent problem in European fishing for over a century -- problem occurred when several nations fished intensively in no-man's-land beyond any nation's jurisdiction -- such fishing in the North Sea had wiped out populations of one species of fish after another -- Iceland figured that if they took unilateral control of the fishing areas nearby they could manage their fish populations prudently . . . a case of prudent predation . . . does it meet the conditions we discussed earlier??

US commercial fishermen quickly advocated extension of US fisheries jurisdiction to exclude foreign fishing -- in fact every country in the world quickly extended their fishery jurisdictions -- Iceland's unilateral action thus redrew the political map of the world's oceans -- fast!

Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (FCMA) 1976 (effective in 1977) -- extended US fisheries jurisdiction to 200 miles offshore (zone within 200 miles of US shores called Exclusive Economic Zone) -- EEZ waters of US include one fifth of world's most productive seas -- area more than half the land area of the US

note that most of the world's most productive oceans lie near coasts -- on continental shelves -- so the extension of fisheries jurisdictions to 200 miles resulted in claims on virtually all of the world's productive fisheries

FCMA also authorized federally insured loans for new fishing boats and equipment -- in order to take advantage of this expanded fishing area

note that the expansion of fishery jurisdiction created a motive to expand US fishing -- because foreign fishing companies (many of whom had previously fished in waters near US shores) would quickly claim any left-over fish in the EEZ -- US could not arbitrarily exclude foreign fishing without jeopardizing opportunities for US boats to fish in other nations' waters -- the only way to avoid giving fish to foreign companies was for US fishermen to catch the fish first!

here is how it works . . . commercial fishing is managed by eight Regional Fishery Management Councils (created by FCMA 1976) -- each is required to determine Maximum Sustained Yield MSY and also Optimal Yield OY (which can depend on social and economic factors as well as biological ones) for each species and to allocate OY among interested parties (commercial, sport, foreign fishing) -- foreign fishermen get what is left over

RFMC's have so far been dominated by political interests of regulated parties (sport and commerical fishermen and related industries) -- biological input often ignored or misunderstood -- but expansion of fisheries jurisdiction created irresistable political pressures . . .

. . . and resulted in a typical Tragedy of Commons . . . and not just in the US . . .

nearly all the world's fisheries (including US fisheries) are now over-fished -- Georges Bank off New England (once one of world's most productive fishing grounds) destroyed by intensive trawling in 1970's -- fishing now completely prohibited -- still not clear that recovery will occur (at least not any time soon)

one interesting side issue . . . extension of fisheries jurisdiction and allocation of some fish to foreign companies meant that foreign fishing boats needed monitoring -- hundreds of college biology majors were hired for summer jobs on foreign fishing boats -- even some previous graduates of BIOL 72! -- these "observers" were treated like royalty -- even women observers on boats containing entirely male crews speaking, for instance, Polish! -- NMFS still operates a large program of fisheries observers who record the catch and the by-catch (unintended catch of fish, birds, mammals, some with severely depleted populations) on fishing vessels in US waters -- but nearly all fishing boats in US waters are now US boats

why has commercial fishing so often resulted in a Tragedy of the Commons?   what can be done to encourage prudent use of resources?   privatization or common property rights of communities ?   why did Iceland avoid a TOC (so far as I know) but most other nations did not?

References

McGoodwin J. R. 1990. Crisis in the world's fisheries. Stanford Univ Press.

advocates common property rights with limited access -- argues that restraint to conserve stocks is abandoned when foreigners enter fishery -- no mention of sequestration nor persistence nor liquidation