Capturing the Commons: Devising Institutions to Manage the Maine Lobster Industry

In this illuminating new book, James M. Acheson examines the management of the lobster industry. He shows that resource degradation is not inevitable. Indeed, the Maine lobster fishery is one of the most successful fisheries in the world. Catches have been stable since World War II, and record highs have been achieved since the late 1980s. According to Acheson, these high catches are due, in part, to the institutions generated by the lobster-fishing industry to control fishing practices. Rational choice theory frames Acheson's study. Rational choice theorists believe that the overexploitation of marine resources stems from the common-pool nature of these resources. In fisheries, what is rational for the individual fishermen can lead to disaster for the society. The Maine lobster industry is very unusual in that it has solved a series of such problems by creating three different sets of regulatory controls: groups of lobster fishermen have generated informal territorial rules; some groups have been able to devise rules to control the number of traps they fish; and the industry as a whole has been very successful in lobbying Maine lawmakers to enact formal conservation legislation. In recent years, the industry has successfully influenced new regulations at the federal level and has developed a strong co-management system with the Maine government. The importance of Capturing the Commons is twofold: it provides a case study of the management of one highly successful fishery, which can serve as a management model for policy makers and local communities; and it adds to the body of theory concerning the conditions under which people will and will not devise institutions to manage natural resources.

About the Author :
James M. Acheson is Professor of Anthropology and Marine Sciences at the University of Maine. He is author of The Lobster Gangs of Maine (UPNE 1988), one of the first popular studies of the lobster industry.

Review :
." . . fishermen, scientists, regulators, and especially politicians would do well to absorb its lessons."--Down East "[This] is an extremely fine, informative read. [Acheson] provides a competent, convincing course on the difficult management of a common resource, especially one where there is a lack of resource predictability and great uncertainties, all complicated with the tangled matrix in which the culture, institutions and formal regulations unfolds. It is highly recommended."--International Journal of Maritime History "An intriguing book that will interest fishermen, resource managers, and scholars... this book is a timely and important one, in light of the fact that sixty percent of the world's fisheries are in various states of degradation and crisis." --Northeastern Naturalist "Documenting the way in which different kinds of formal and informal institutions were developed to manage the booming Maine lobster industry, providing a case study of the management of one highly successful fishery, and, by doing so, contributing to the body of theory concerning the conditions under which people will and will not devise institutions to manage natural resources."--Natural Resources Journal "James Acheson cogently analyzes a 70-year process during which the lobster fishermen of Maine boot strapped modest improvement after modest improvement on the condition of their fishery after suffering through a major bust. By devising rules that protected breeding stock and juveniles, the lobster stock began to expand. By gaining confidence in their rules, those responsible gained confidence to devise still more ways of conserving the stock. Managers of other resource systems and scholars can learn major lessons from reading this carefully documented and theoretically informed volume. I will be assigning this book to my own students and recommending it to resource manager in all parts of the world. All who read this book will benefit."-- Elinor Ostrom, Co-Director, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University, member of the National Academy of Sciences