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Quasi-property rights has a positive impact on economic efficiency of fishing industry and conservation of fishery resources. Fishing licences and fishing quotas under British and Chinese fisheries laws have shown that fishing rights carry some attributes of property rights. But Chinese fishers rights are weaker than the UK fishers rights. Seven recommendations are put forward to enhance quality of rights: (1) Promoting international cooperation on fisheries management by reaching comprehensive fisheries agreements in East and South-eastern Asia; (2) Improving exclusivity of fishing rights by reducing the number of fishing vessels, localizing fishers rights, and introducing a fishing quota system in China; (3) Using the fishing quota as the only indicator of fishing rights instead of fishing licences and abolishing penalty of VCUs in the UK; (4) Enhancing security of fishing rights; (5) Granting permanent fishing rights to fishers; (6) Making fishing rights more transferable; (7) Acknowledging that fishers are entitled to sue marine polluters to safeguard fishers rights and preserve fish habitat.
About the author
The author received MA from Shanghai Fisheries Unviersity, China and LLM from University of Dundee, Scotland. As an associate professor at Dalian Ocean University China, he has published some 40 papers and one book on fisheries and sea law, and undertaken some projects on fisheries legislation.
