Economic evaluation of fishery policies in Lamon Bay, Quezon, Philippines

This report assesses the sustainability of fisheries of Lamon Bay in the Philippines and investigates the effectiveness of fishery conservation policies. It finds that current policies are failing and that a substantial investment would be required to ensure full compliance with current regulations. It also finds that the benefits of achieving high levels of compliance would exceed costs by only a tiny margin. It concludes that current regulations to deal with overfishing are neither cost-effective nor address the underlying problems of overexploitation of fish stocks and open access to fishing areas. The report suggests that a tradable quota system may provide one answer to the problem and outlines government policies that would back up such an approach