Does quota ownership affect perceptions of fishery performance?

Individual transferable quotas (ITQs) have been introduced in a large number of fisheries worldwide, mainly to achieve resource sustainability and improve the economic performance of the fisheries. Fisheries have evolved since quota introduction and have developed different ownership structures, with some fisheries being predominantly owner-operator, while other fisheries have attracted investors and non-fishing quota ownership. These different ownership structures may affect the perceptions of the effectiveness of ITQs, although the influence of ownership structures to the perception of management performance based on different management objectives is rarely studied. In this paper, we draw on a case study of the Tasmanian abalone fishery in Australia to illustrate the influence of different quota ownership structures on perceptions about the social, economic and resource sustainability outcomes of ITQ fisheries. We find that fishers with low levels of quota ownership (i.e. lease dependent) have low levels of satisfaction, and believe the fishery is not performing well against the multiple management objectives.