A closer look
Leave it to economists to look at a rapidly dying marine ecosystem and decide the solution is to invent a literal stock market for dead fish. Under New Zealand's Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) system, the government caps the total allowable catch and distributes quota shares to fishermen. If a boat wants to catch more than its limit, it has to buy or lease shares from a competitor. This brilliant privatization of nature immediately stopped overfishing by giving corporations a vested, highly lucrative financial interest in making sure the fish actually reproduce.
