Little humanity does today is stable, and as we look towards the future we have fewer and fewer options
sourceHumanities system of use for ocean resources must be changed to become sustainable. The oceans are treated as commons in which many different groups are able to fish. In today’s world this often takes the shape of for-profit actors within market systems. This leads to the tragedy of the commons, a tragedy with which there is no solution within our market systems. The only possible solution requires a planned economy.
The Tragedy of the Commons
The tragedy of the commons is applicable to capitalism today. It was first thought up by William Forster Lloyd in 1833, and outlines observed human use of resources. The tragedy of the commons takes place on commonly owned land when privately controlled means of production based on resource extraction become prevalent on the land. When the means of production are privately owned much of the profit goes into new capital in an effort to expand the means of production to secure more profit. If an individual or company does not choose to do this they will lose market share and have less of an impact in the future. Concentrated capital tends to be more efficient, as more advanced instruments can be used and existing machines can be improved, but other limitations may come into place to slow or stall the flow of capital under some circumstances. As the means of production expand, the use of the common property increases. The most common theoretical given of the tragedy of the commons was applied to grazing animals on common land that supplied grass. When the animals are privately owned, the people have the incentive to bring as many as possible. When the carrying capacity was exceeded animals were still brought, lowering the total amount of food each gets, which past a point lowers the total amount of product produced from these animals more than the inclusion of a new animal increases it. People who are in search of profit will continue to bring in animals as long as they can personally earn a profit, even if it ends up hurting the whole. The most common solution to this is split up the common land into privately owned sections.
The oceans are an example of the tragedy of the commons. Sustainability is a long-debated issue with ocean fishing today, with no clear answer. As areas become overfished the amount of fish caught there declines, and management is needed to bring the maximum sustainable fishing rate back up. This means other spots must be fished more in order to keep production the same as before, which eventually leads to them eventually becoming overfished as well. Only 20% of fish stocks are not being fully or overexploited. Allow stocks to rebuild could bring up production by 16.5 tonnes a year, which is nearly 18% the yearly captured fish. Illicit fishing produces about 26 million tonnes per year, which is very hard to control and often helps lead to overfishing. Small-scale fisheries employ about 90% of the worlds fishermen, and they tend to be harder to regulate, even when legal. This is partially because of how the markets operate within the fishing industry. Fishermen tend to know little of markets, that tends to be restricted to the traders and processors. That leads to exploitative relationships and makes it impossible to combat overfishing through market forces on that front. The larger fishing boats, usually controlled by large-scale fisheries, can stay out at sea for months at a time. This is because they practise processing and freezing fish as they are caught. This gives them a chance to have less of an impact than the smaller local fishermen, and move around to sell their fish at a much higher profit. With so much movement, private ownership would be very difficult (and expensive) to pull off.
“Certainly in Fiji, exporters are, on average, earning several times more gross income (per kg) from exporting sea cucumbers than fishers earn from selling dried sea cucumbers to them. There was less disparity in Kiribati, where fishers earned slightly more gross income per kg of dried sea cucumbers than exporters. “ - Distribution of economic returns in small-scale fisheries for international markets: A value-chain analysis
The Real Problem
The problem is not the fishermen’s understanding of markets. The livelihood of fishermen and the food of coastal areas often depends on the fish brought in. Small fisheries are much less efficient, at the order of requiring five times as many people to produce the same (market) value of fish. There must be alternative reasons as to why small still exist, other than global profit rates. These fishermen, unlike the ones laboring on the ships with freezing and processing on board, likely do not have the ability to travel large distances to take advantages of market differences. This means they must instead sell their fish locally, where the cost of distribution from an outward source outweighs the inefficiency of local fishing. This means that even if they do make enough profit to accumulate capital they would eventually move out of that area to find more fish and sell fish at better prices, leaving it open to local small-boat fishermen once again. This will lead to the depletion of fish stocks as long as people are able to make a living off of fishing locally.
Planning the use of fishing resources is more efficient. Because of the nature of markets the areas fed by local and small-boat fishing will not be able to accommodate fish from more sustainable areas without competition, which creates a major loss of profit for both sides. If the small-groups happen to be muscled out that will cause the loss of livelihood for millions of people who rely on fishing, as the efficiency increase due to the likely usage of larger, better, boats will allow less room for jobs under limited maximum usage. This would also allow capital accumulation to continue unhindered by local fishing, and will lead to monopolies. This means the only option to keep fish at a reasonable price and in existence in the future is to use a system free from market monopolies. A system of planning would require all small and large business to be removed, and replaced with commonly controlled fishing suppliers. This would change the goal of groups from getting as much profit as possible, to supplying the needs of the people they are fishing for. This would mean being careful where and when they fish, to keep the populations in balance. If this system becomes much more efficient than the local fishermen, their jobs would still be lost. To keep up with the inefficiencies of capitalism the planning could simply increase its budget and decrease efficiency. Either way, long term it would protect our fish stocks from depleting and allow us to have a supply of fish in the future as well as today.
The tragedy of the commons will play out in any market system. The nature of ocean fishing amplifies that, and is the cause of many problems today. To stop this from turning into major problems tomorrow society must be willing to implement a planned system for using our resources.
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“Capture Fisheries Production (Metric Tons).” GDP Growth (Annual %) | Data, data.worldbank.org/indicator/ER.FSH.CAPT.MT.
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