Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. The new institutional economics and natural resource management -- 2. The western and central Pacific tuna fishery -- 3. Getting fishery policy objectives right -- 4. Achieving policy objectives through institutional reform -- 5. Managing resource revenues -- 6. The catch in trading fishing access for foreign aid -- 7. The contribution of fishery resources to economic development.

Elizabeth H. Petersen argues that economists and other social scientists are increasingly focusing their attention towards institutions (defined as humanly-devised rules) as critical determinants of economic, social and political growth and development. Institutions responsible for the governance of fishery resources have experienced dramatic reforms over the last few decades, stimulated by increased competition for access and exploitation of resources, leading to emerging scarcity of these very resources. This book aims to contribute to the biological and economic sustainability of fish resources worldwide by providing an analysis of fisheries management in the context of new institutional economics.