Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

Catches from India's coastal waters have fallen in several regions over the past decade, and the same stocks are fished by fleets operating out of more than one State. Boats have grown in number and in engine power, so the effort applied to a stock keeps rising even where the stock itself is shrinking. Fisheries are administered by the States within territorial waters, while the waters beyond are a Union responsibility, so a stock that moves across that line is managed by nobody in particular. Where allocation has been attempted, it has worked only when the share given to each fleet was fixed against something measurable: the assessed size of the stock, the number of households that depend on it, and the effort already being applied. What is scarce is not goodwill but an agreed basis for dividing a shrinking resource.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the most rational, practical and immediate action required to ensure a fair division of the catch among the fleets that depend on it?