Blog cafe : Crab crisis

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: While the current financial crisis has received much attention, another crisis has led to calls for government intervention. The Maryland blue crab population has dropped sharply in recent years.

The annual catch is now thirty percent of its previous level. Some people blame pollution, overharvesting, and development of nesting areas for the decline in the crab population. The Virginia Marine Resources Commission has failed to remedy this situation. Twenty-two regulatory measures (enacted in 1994) have failed to stem the decline in the crab population. New regulations and licensing requirements have been proposed to limit the ability to catch crabs.

Some senators are urging that the crab crisis be declared a federal disaster, so that Chesapeake crabbers can receive $20 million in aid. This is not the first time that there have been calls for subsidies.

While politicians think in terms of subsidies and production limits as solutions to the crab crisis, economics points to different solutions. The root cause of the crab crisis is that nobody owns the breeding grounds (which of course are water) for crabs or crabs themselves. Fishing areas and swamps are not generally private property, and crabs themselves for the most part roam freely and are not the property of any individuals. Lack of private-property rights leads to particular problems. The tragedy of the commons exists because nobody has an incentive to invest in communal property. In a true fishing commons, anyone can draw fish or crabs, simply by having access and the necessary equipment. Private owners of cattle capture the gain from breeding and caring for their livestock, but anyone investing in breeding and maintaining crabs shares any gain with all other noncontributing fisherman.