The Price of Fish In 1986, the New Zealand government introduced the QMS (Quota Management System) to regulate fishing in the country's coastal waters, which extend 200nm offshore and are divided into 10 Fisheries Management Areas (FMAs). Under the QMS, most fish species are subject to catch quotas within the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) and the Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC). The TACCs are reviewed annually by MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries), and based on fish populations, the appropriate TACCs are allocated to the FMAs. These TACCs are further divided into Individual Tradeable Quotas (ITQs), which are permanently given to commercial fisheries for free. This reflects the neoliberal policy decisions of that era, where public assets were divided among private interests as a means to generate wealth for the elite. Neoliberal economics assumes that wealth will trickle down from the wealthy to working-class citizens. However, this approach has led to fisheries feudalism, ...