The Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens) is a species of fish of the anchovy family, Engraulidae, from the Southeast Pacific Ocean.

[1] After a period of plenty in the late 1960s, the population was greatly reduced by overfishing[6] and the 1972 El Niño event, when warm water drifted over the cold Humboldt Current and lowered the depth of the thermocline.

Nutrient-rich waters then no longer upwelled, and phytoplankton production decreased, leaving the anchoveta with a depleted food source.

The fishing industry claimed populations were more around 6.8 million metric tons of reproductive-age anchoveta, so despite discrepancies, the Peruvian Ministry of Production allowed the opening of anchoveta fisheries the second season, but with a quota: 1.1 million metric tons, about half the quota of the first season of the year.

A large scale promotion campaign including by the then-president of Peru Alan García helped to make the anchoveta known to rich and poor alike.

In this respect, the definition and calculation of fishing rent enables recognition of the payment that the state should receive for the use of a renewable natural resource: in this case anchoveta.

Economic theory holds that the implementation of the resource rent means that it is the maximum possible compared with the open access status that previously existed.

Meanwhile, if a fishery falls under a regime of assigned property rights, then the rent generated will be positive and will guarantee a biologically and economically efficient level of extraction.