A mediterranean agreement for tuna conservation: The political benefit of an international ITQ scheme

Mediterranean bluefin tuna have been increasingly overfished since the early 1990s, but the countries involved have so far been unable to reach an agreement on an ecologically and economically more efficient use of this shared resource. A system of individual transferable quotas could foster international agreement on reducing the total allowable catches. One condition for this, however, would be that fisheries be adequately compensated for the opportunity costs of decommissioning vessels.