From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Individual fishing quotas (popularly abbreviated to IFQ) are a means by which many governments have tried to regulate fishing. Due to the widely recognized decimation of wild fish populations, governments set a species-by-species limit of total allowable catches (TAC). In the United States, the limits are based on historical records of fishing and given out as property rights to fishermen and companies. These programs have been criticized for the barrier it has made for new fishers to enter the market. Additionally, the program reduces what had previously been a public commodity to being restricted to private industry. While intending to help declining fishing stocks, there has been some evidence showing that due to highgrading little progress has been made.
