Rational choice, culture change, and fisheries management in the gulf of Maine

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Abstract
The difference between the highly successful Maine lobster industry and the crisis-ridden New England ground fishery is that the lobster industry has been able to organize politically to get legislation to solve a number of communal action dilemmas. The groundfishery has not been able to do so. What has made the difference is the lobster industry's development of a conservation ethic over the past 70 years, as additional conservation laws, increasing catches, and ideational factors reinforced each other in an upward spiral. In the groundfishery, top down management policies, biology, and technology all worked against developing effective rules, which led to cheating, a “gold rush mentality” and overexploitation.