MSY revisited. A realistic approach to fisheries management and administration

Many values can be set for MSY or TAC of a fishery resource, among them the greatest occurs only rarely. With poor comprehension of the statistical character of MSY, few attempts to manage fisheries with reference to it have been successful. That outcome has resulted partly from inadequacies of the general paradigm of stock assessment, but more from failure to appreciate the significance of the economic and social terms of the exploitation equation. A plea is made for a system of fishery resources law which, of local, national and international effect, would restrain the economic drives and social impulses that so far have frustrated the efforts of fishery administrators, denied industrial stability, and threatened resource survival.