2015 Volume 56 Issue 1 Pages 57-85
In order to understand Norwegian fisheries and its management policies, this paper examined various data regarding fishing operations of large-scale purse-seiners and the first-hand price of Atlantic mackerel under Individual Vessel Quota (IVQ) system. In every autumn, the vessels intensively harvested for mackerel schools migrating to Norwegian water, fully consuming their IVQs about two months. During the landings, its price was sustained by Norway’s unique legislations to limit first-hand sales to fishermen’s sales organization and to set minimum prices. These facts reveal that the vessels were not operating as general Individual Quota system conceptually assumes. Their high profitability seems to be realized to considerable extent by the reduced number and modernization of fishing vessels, as well as increased global fish prices particularly after 1990s.
