Question

1. Why might fishermen be relented to implement a catch share system?

2. What is a Catch Share?

3. How can resources in other counties affect the US?

4. What makes the market for fish different from the market for cattle?

5. What is the purpose of a Command and Control system and how could it improve the economy?

Answer 1

1. A catch share, also known as an individual fishing quota, is a transferable voucher that gives individuals or businesses the ability to access a fixed percentage of the total authorized catch of a particular species. Fishery management systems based on catch shares turn a public resource into private property and have led to socioeconomic and environmental problems.

Contrary to arguments by catch share proponents – namely large commercial fishing interests – this management system has exacerbated unsustainable fishing practices. Most programs operate by giving away catch shares to companies and individuals based on their catch history and then allowing them to lease or sell their quotas in a private market system. While this may sound like a fair approach, the reality is that smaller fishermen who fish slower and catch less are pushed out if the levels of fish that can be caught are set too high. Wages for crews fall because many captains have to buy or lease quota to fish. Ultimately, the industry is skewed toward industrial fishing vessels employing fewer people and using less sustainable fishing methods.

In fact, catch shares have:

• Drastically consolidated profits for a few larger participants
• Eliminated jobs
• Decreased crew pay
• Not improved fishery health

2. Catch share is a fishery management system that allocates a secure privilege to harvest a specific area or percentage of a fishery's total catch to individuals, communities, or associations. Examples of catch shares are individual transferable quota (ITQs), individual fishing quota (IFQs), territorial use rights for fishing (TURFs), limited access privileges (LAPs), sectors (also known as cooperatives), and dedicated access privileges (DAPs).

Catch shares provide long-term secure privileges to participants and, in theory, an incentive for efficient, sustainable use of fish stocks.Actual outcomes in terms of efficiency and ecological sustainability are varied, based on design and implementation of the program.

3. The global economy affects the United States in several ways. If other countries experience difficult economic times, it will impact American companies that do business overseas. These companies might reduce the number of workers they employ, as fewer products will be demanded in other countries. This might negatively impact the stock market because of fears that the American economy may also begin to decline.

4. The economic impact of the meat and poultry industry in the United States alone is over $1 trillion. Beef production creates millions of jobs including suppliers, distributors and retailers. Feeder cattle are a vital part of the global ecosystem of beef production and an important commodity in world markets.

Producing feeder cattle is a complex, high-stakes business. Successful production relies on proper animal husbandry techniques as well as good economic decision-making. Ranchers begin the process by breeding cows (females) with bulls (males) either naturally or with artificial insemination (A.I.). Ranchers traditionally breed cattle in the summer to produce calves in the spring. A natural breeding process generally requires one bull for each 20 to 25 cows. Many producers prefer A.I. because they can better control the genetics of the calves.

5. A command economy is one in which a centralized government controls the means of production. This has has both advantages and disadvantages when compared to a free market economy.

Because the government controls the means of production in a command economy, it determines who works where and for how much pay. This power structure contrasts sharply with a free market economy, in which private companies control the means of production and hire workers based on business needs, paying them wages set by invisible market forces.

In a free market economy, the law of supply and demand dictates that workers who have unique skills in high-demand fields receive high wages for their services, while low-skill individuals in fields that are saturated with workers settle for meager wages, if they can find work at all.Unlike the invisible hand of the free market, which cannot be manipulated by a single company or individual, a command economy government can set wages and job openings to create the unemployment rate and wage distribution that it sees fit.