A Study On China's Fishing Quota System

With rapid development of fisheries, there has been a decline in fisheries resources and economic effciencies as a result. So the economic development and the social stability have been impaired in the fisheries areas. Since the liberation of China in 1949, a lot of management measures have been taken to address these problems, but the situation has not changed a lot for some reasons. Just because of the problems encountered by China's marine capture industry over the last 50 years and its institutional deficiencies in the existing management system of China's fisheries, the Fisheries Law of the People's Republic of China amended on October 31,2000 provides that the Total Allowable Catch of fisheries resources should be determined to implement Fishing Quota System (FQS) in the capture industry on the principle that the catch is lower than the increase of fisheries resources.Based on some studies on the quota management system at home and abroad, this dissertation has investigated the developmental process and tendency of the international fisheries management with the use of Management Decision, Institutional Economics, Environmental and Natural Resources Economics, Law, Sociology and so on. Then in the light of the specific condition of China's fisheries, this paper puts forward the implementation of FQS combined with the arrangement system reform of fishing vessel horsepower in a creative way and proposed a conceptual framework of the FQS for China's marine capture fisheries, providing the fisheries department of China's government with references in theory and practice.From the perspective of managing international fisheries resources and uses, this dissertation assesses the Bureaucracy-Based approach, Market-Based approach, Community-Based approach and Co-Management model by using three interrelated transaction costs associated policy implementation:information costs, coordination costs and strategic costs. Each approach has different objectives and criteria for success and failure. This paper analyzes four major approaches, and concludes that they have different positive and negative outcomes. Finally, it suggests that the successful fisheries management is to match these approaches and their inherent costs and benefits, and strengths and weaknesses with the specific situation existing in a particular fisheries industry.This dissertation evaluates the various types of fishery regulatory techniques as to their appropriate in an optimal management plan with the use of Western Economics, but the primary focus will be on economic efficiency attributes, although other objectives in the management will be addressed as well. The profit-maximizing vessel operator will choose that combination of inputs which maximizes profits. This involves choosing both the proper level of output and the combination of inputs which will produce that output at the lowest possible cost. There is no one optimal management technique that applies equally well in all situations. The correct choice depends upon the biological, economic, and institutional peculiarities of the particular fishery involved.The Gordon-Schaefer Model in the Surplus Production Model as an example is used to duduce the methods for determining the total fishing quota under the conditions of the single species and multi-species fisheries. Based upon this, in the light of the characteristics of the maring capture industry of China, successful experience gained from New Zealang's setting group quotas in the by-catch fisheries is used to the implementation of China's FQS, i.e., setting total fishing quota for key species while setting total allowable catch for by-catch species with respect to the species.In view of this situation encountered by China's marine fisheries over the last 50 years in the 20th century, by the implementation of China's FQS in combination with the arrangement system reform of fishing vessel horsepower in a creative way, China's maring fishing vessels horsepower assigned to fishing vessels originally will be distributed to the traditional fishermen in order to separate the fishing vessels horsepower from the fishing license. Through doing so, the right to use common fisheries resources and that to own the quota in the FQS divided and abstracted are considered to be a property right assigned to those right owner from the angle of law, and the right of the quota owner to use and dispose the quota to obtain the profits and other interests. In response to this situation, the Chinese government may initiate the central exchange for fishing vessels horsepower. The main results from this kind of mechanism are summarized as follows:(1) separating the fishing vessels horsepower from the fishing license; (2) helping fishermen out of marine capture industry; and (3) truly realizing the transition in China's fisheries management from "input control" to "output control" in combination with "input control".In response to the monitoring, control and surveillance system in China, this dissertation puts forward the implementation of FQS in combination with the arrangement system reform of fishing vessel horsepower in a creative way. By the implementation of the arrangement system reform of fishing vessels horsepower, this quota is assigned to traditional fishermem rather than fishing vessels. By implementing this policy, China may achieve limiting not only aggregate horsepower by fishing zone and the number of licenses issued within the national quota as predetermined (thus refered to as "dual control") but also carrying out social equity. This method may serve as a cushion against current defiencies in the surveillance and enforcement of the FQS. By doing so, the government can transfer some function of supervision to the traditional fishermen.