Closing the Commons ─ Norwegian Fisheries from Open Access to Private Property

Closing the Commons traces the development of limited fishery access from the 1930s—when a licensing system was first established for trawlers operating in Norwegian waters—through the closing of offshore fleets in the 1970s and the coastal fleet in the 1990s. Today, more than ninety percent of all Norwegian fisheries have been closed through various license systems and mandates.?

Noted researcher Bjorn Hersoug analyzes this process and related issues, exploring the policy options available for future fisheries development. Extensively researched, the book is the first to fully examine the entire closing process for an English-speaking audience.

Bjorn Hersoug was the rector of the Norwegian College of Fishery Science at the University of Tromso and has been involved with fisheries management in Norway as well as in other countries for nearly thirty years, both practically and academically. Hersoug is the author of, among other books, Fishing in a Sea of Sharks: Reconstruction and Development in the South African Fishing Industry and Fisheries Development: The Institutional Challenge.