Slightly different in the case of the fisheries though steps. If forestry or mining etc....finite resources....run out, then there is no more to be taken. Fisheries are not like that, it is a naturally renewing resource.
And the way the qms system has been set up, the quota holder owns the right to catch that amount of fish, it is a property right.
It is more like being a farmer owning your land and the govt then telling you that although you own it, you are not allowed to actually farm it any more, even though you bought the land off the govt for the express stated purpose of farming it. So you can sue.
Or if you get a twenty year lease on a forestry block off the govt, pre paying for the full twenty years lease to give you the right to allow X trees per year to be felled to run through a mill etc, then two years later the govt says you can't actually cut down the trees now because, whatever, carbons or something, and is cancelling the lease, but you don't get the money back because there aren't enough trees in the world anymore, so suck it up. So surely you can ask for the money you paid to lease the block from the govt back?
You have to remember that this quota has not just been given away to the quota holders, they have paid an awful lot of money to hold it, so the quota holders have most definitely invested in this property....and saying a govt should freely be allowed to just cancel ownership rights on anything they want is a helluva dangerous precedent.
Today legally owned quota, tomorrow legally owned houses where they want to put a motorway....why not just take those too without any compensation or repurchase? How would you feel about the local council telling you it needs your place for a new rail link say. You've gt a year to move out, and no, you get no compensation for your lost house, because....well, just because.
So, yes, compensation for a restriction or reduction of a property right IS important, no matter what it is. Whether we like it or not is irrelevant.
It is only my overwhelming natural humility that mars my perfection.
Captain Asparagus, Superhero, Adventurer.