, catch limits were drastically reduced to 60,000 tonnes, “to allow the stock to recover” (Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources 2004:2). Some 20 years later, hake spawning stock biomass is considered to be at about 80% of values in 1990 and 12% of values in 1964 (Kirchner et al. 2012), a level that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations classifies as "depleted” (Marine and Inland Fisheries Service 2011). What happened?