Our aim is to study the possible economic, biological and social effects of the individual transferable quotas (ITQs) for the Finnish herring fishery. First, we carry out the bioeconomic analysis of Finnish herring fishery. The model observes two optional management schemes: ITQ-system and IQ-system with non-transferable quotas. Secondly, the qualitative part of the study consists of the interviews of Finnish fishermen. We find that current management of the Finnish herring fishery is far from biologically and economically sound management. The economic advice is biologically more conservative than the current biological advice. According to simulation results ITQ-system is a good alternative for the current total allowable catch (TAC) based management. The results of interviews show that ITQ-system would likely be supported by the fishermen.

No abstract