Question

Overfishing, the crash of the Northern Cod Population
example”. Based on this parable, explain about five strategies the townspeople (or their
government) would have done to prevent the tragedy? Explain about three reasons why
some of these strategies might not work properly

Answer 1

Strategies for ways to prevent overfishing by people of town are:

Defining property rights: if property rights are well defined, then the people know exactly who owns it and this reduces the overfishing.

Privatisation of the lake: if the lake is privatised or a single owner owns it, he would ensure that there is no exploitation of his lake and that the fishermen are regulated.

If instead of the private firms, government owns it and then defines punishment or regulation to prevent overuse, then overfishing could be avoided.

Also if rather than defining property rights, the community voluntarily takes steps to regulate themselves such that their income is maintained and that the fishes are not exploited.

Taxes or a limit on the number of fishes could also be another way to reduce the overfishing.

These ways or strategies might not work when:

An individual is concerned about his own utility maximisation and this leads to overusage even when there are laws.

Also there could be that the government's intervention could lead to welfare losses if it is in form of taxes and this makes the fishermen worse off.

When privatised, it could complete prohibit the fishermen to fish in those waters and the lake could be used for commercial purposes which could be more harmful and also the income sou of fishermen in such case reduces.