1. In a sole ownership fishery, the difference between the total revenues obtained from the fishery resource and the total costs of production, i.e. capital and labor valued at their opportunity costs. The total costs of production include a reasonable profit and the rent is often considered as a "surplus" profit, over and above what would be considered a 'normal' rate of return. For this reason, the decision as to who gets the rent (e. G. society, the management authority, or the fishermen) remains a key policy issue; 2. Any payment to an owner of a productive resource that is an amount in excess of the payment needed to keep the resource in its current use. Applied to fisheries, the amount of pure profit that can be gained from a fishery resource by using no more fishing effort than needed to harvest the resource. Under open access, the resource would yield no economic rent, whereas a sole owner would seek to maximize economic rent.