AbstractAre there limits to the governability of a fishery? The establishment of a 200 nautical mile economic zone inNorway in 1977 made it possible to change from an open‐access regime to a more closed one. In this process, the former self‐regulatingNorwegian fishing industry, to a large extent, accepted and adapted an explicit, hierarchical form of state‐run governance. However, the process of change did not stop there. Since the turn of the millennium, we have seen the creation of acybernetically organizedfishing industry, where control, regulation and governance have become re‐embedded in the industry. This article explores this radical new development and perspective on fisheries governance and governability based on lessons learned from technological and organizational changes in theNorwegian fishing industry.