Individual transferable effort (ITE) management regimes have recently been utilized in a number of Australian fisheries. They differ from other input controls (typically fixed or variable levels of gear usage in a fixed season) by limiting the amountof time that a vessel can access a fishery resource, but without the need for fixed seasonal controls. However, they can also be teamed with measures of gear usage to provide a time-gear form of control. Individual transferable efforts are managed through a vessel monitoring system (VMS), which records the period of time that a vessel is in the waters of a fishery and allows for flexibility in usage of the access entitlement. Individual transferable efforts have a number of characteristics which producemore satisfactory outcomes for sustainability and conservation—particularly in multispecies fisheries. Access levels can be based on the exploitation rates of the more vulnerable species in the catch, ensuring that "at-risk" species are not overexploited. This avoids some of the traditional risks of ITQ systems, such as high grading and trashing of exhausted-quota species in the pursuit of species which have not reached quota limits. Individual transferable efforts also have the advantage that they are more likely to respond naturally to variations in stock abundance, unlike fixed quotas which can result in the quota being taken irrespective of the stock abundance. They are also more flexible than management systems which specify a particular gear allowance within a fixed season. However, because levels of access are based on "at risk" species, they can result in the total productivity of the fishery being underexploited. Also, as an input control, ITEs suffer from some of the ills of other input controls, such as overinvestment in equipment ("capital stuffing").
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