The Nobel Prize in economics bestowed upon Elinor Ostrom this week largely honors her work showing that commonly owned resources can be preserved and managed by stakeholders as well as or better than by governments or through privatization.
And many within the fishing community are noting her position as a strong statement against the "catch-share" management format being pushed for New England and other fisheries.
With the administration of President Obama, himself a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, embarked on a zealous effort to convert as many of the nation’s fisheries into systems of private ownership — whether called "catch shares," or individual transferable quotas (ITQs) — and fishing communities complaining of central state bureaucratic tyranny, Ostrom’s shift from academe into the spotlight has thrust her ideas straight into a fierce debate.
The universal essential for Ostrom in any scheme for the management of common resources such as fisheries is local responsibility for those resources.