Tuna and the Tragedy of the Commons
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/tuna-commission-quota-rules-1.3323195
Restrictions on mass tuna fishing (as well as other fish, though tuna have emerged as the posterchild) are a direct response to a precipitous fall in their wild population due to commercial overfishing. These have been implemented by individual countries and there are also some international standards to try to reign in overfishing. The problem in enforcement emerged because of murky or non-existent property rights in international waters allows companies to exploit large wild tuna populations without consequence.
The lack of clear or direct oversight creates a “tragedy of the commons” situation, where tuna are overexploited to their population’s detriment. Longer term, the net benefit of tuna fishing goes to zero without measures to reduce overfishing since the population will also fall to zero. Countries and international organizations have tried to limit or prevent this by introducing quotas for domestic companies and even attempted to put in place international quotas for total tuna consumption.