ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses development of the marine salmon fanning industry in coastal waters around Scotland and analyzes the institutional framework governing interactions with other users of the marine environment. Governing the exploitation of a common pool resource can therefore be described as bringing about coordinated action among diverse users of the resource. The chapter presents the institutional arrangement governing marine salmon farming in the waters off the coasts of West-Scotland, Hebrides, and Orkney is compared with the arrangement governing coastal waters around Shetland. As has been explained earlier, there is no directly accountable public body with formal planning authority for marine salmon farming development in Scotland. Some of the most critical comments on the Crown Estate Commissioners voluntary planning role came from local authorities with no planning remit beyond the low water mark. The public inquiry conducted by the House of Commons Agriculture Committee itself can be interpreted as an attempt to strengthen the role of communicative rationality in practice.
