In view of quota over-consumption situations, POs have had to introduce new rules within their organisations to impose limitations on individual consumption by species. In Spain this trend has been noted in the context of purse-seiners where “cofradías” are able to manage anchovy on the basis of daily limits. In turn, blue-fin tuna are managed at the PO level on the basis of individual quota pooling. In the case of trawling, POs also manage the transferability of the ITQs. The Celtic Sea Herring fishery represents a fairly unique situation in Ireland as the local management committee has a strong input to quota management decisions while in other Irish
fisheries quota management has not been devolved to the PO’s. The introduction of a more de
fined restricted access regime in the main fishery has resulted in the issue of
nationally tradable quotas being discussed more frequently. In the UK, devolved management of quotas has a long history and the system of PO quota management is now well established. While differences remain between POs in the extent to which the market is permitted to play a role in their internal quota allocation, all POs now find they must allow some quota trading by their members. Whether the UK will follow the Netherlands and Denmark in moving any closer to an ITQ system proper (with continued PO responsibility) is unclear.