25 How can ITQs change the short-term outlook of fishers to a long-term outlook? To the first settlers, the Great Plains of North America posed the same problem as the oceans today: a vast, open area where there seemed to be no way to protect animals. But animals thrived once the settlers divvied up the land and devised ways to protect their livestock. Today, the oceans are much like an open range.

Fishermen catch as much as they can this year, even if they are overfishing. They figure any fish they don’t take for themselves will just be taken by someone else.