EDFish

New Study Shows Improved Compliance under Catch Shares for Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish

By / Published: June 26, 2012

Gulf of Mexico Red SnapperUnder catch shares, fishermen have a strong incentive to become stewards of their fishery because they benefit directly from conservation practices, better monitoring, and improving information about stock conditions. A new study also confirms there is a positive change in incentives towards better compliance under catch shares management.

Last week, Marine Policy released a study by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) analyzing the relationship of enforcement and compliance behavior in the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) program, a catch share program implemented in 2007. The goal of the study was to better understand how catch shares management affects enforcement and compliance behavior. Enforcement records and fishermen surveys were used to compare enforcement practices and cases of noncompliance five years before and after IFQ implementation. Read More »

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More Red Snapper for Gulf of Mexico Fishermen

By / Published: June 4, 2012
Teal basket full of red snapper

Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper

For another year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has approved an increase in the total allowable catch (TAC) for red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico.  The TAC is the overall cap (in pounds) of fish that fishermen are allowed to catch each year and is distributed to the commercial sector, which receives 51% of it, and the recreational sector, which receives 49%.

This increase of 12% brings the TAC up to 8.08 million pounds of red snapper.  Overall, the TAC has been increased by 60% since the beginning of the commercial catch share program for red snapper in 2007. Both commercial and recreational fishermen have seen consistent increases in the amount of fish they are able to catch since the catch share program began.

Last week, on the first of June,   the recreational red snapper season began.  Recreational fishermen have grown increasingly frustrated by short fishing seasons.  This year they will only have 40 days to fish for red snapper, down from 48 days in 2011.  And recreational fishermen are still being managed by closed seasons and bag limits. Read More »

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Working with Fishermen to Improve their Fishing Businesses

By / Published: May 23, 2012
Photo by Don Cuddy Commercial fisherman Frank Mirarchi of Scituate and Emilie Litsinger, groundfish project manager for EDF

Commercial Fisherman Frank Mirarchi of Scituate & Emilie Litsinger, groundfish project manager of EDF. Photo by Don Cuddy

The transition of the New England groundfish fishery to sector management has been a major cultural and economic shift for the fishery. Emilie Litsinger, our Groundfish Project manager, was featured in a recent story illuminating some of the relationships we have formed with fishermen to assist their transition to the new system by providing business tools and planning. “We care about the fish but we also care about the fishermen,” she said to South Coast Today. “We want them to succeed so we hired business consultants to look at the problems facing fishermen like Frank and to help them, not only with prices, but also to develop new marketing initiatives.” Our partnerships with fishermen go beyond achieving sustainable fisheries; we want them to have successful businesses as well. Read the full story here.

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I’ll Have the Cod, Please

By / Bio / Published: May 9, 2012

Being a conscientious seafood lover is difficult today. What is sustainable? What is not? We wrote an op-ed published in the Boston Globe yesterday that we hope will help clarify the right choices to make in order to support both local fishermen and fish stocks. Given the ups and downs of fish populations, what matters most is having a management system in place that puts the fishery on a path to long term stability. Read the op-ed.

 

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Catch Shares Gain New Allies In Close House Vote

By / Bio / Published: May 9, 2012

In a disappointing move for the environment and the fishing industry, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a rider that would effectively ban new federal catch shares for fisheries in the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

Thanks in large part to catch shares, many fisheries in the United States have been turning a corner after decades of overfishing, massive job losses and closures. Fish caught in catch shares currently account for about half of the value and over three quarters of the volume of commercial landings in federal waters.

Some fisheries still under conventional management have not yet recovered, causing fishermen to suffer. This misguided rider would thwart progress and take a proven tool off the table for struggling fishermen and regional fishery management councils.

The rider was approved by a vote of 220-191, a smaller margin than when a similar rider was approved last year by a vote of 259-159. More members of Congress have come to oppose a ban because they want to make our oceans more sustainable for the fish and fishermen.  Read More »

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EDF Stands With Fishermen In Calling for Suspension of Rig Removal Policy

By / Published: April 24, 2012

By Jack Sterne, Director of Strategic Initiatives

Jack Sterne, EDF's Director of Strategic Initiatives

Anyone who’s enjoyed fishing in the Gulf of Mexico can share a story about how great the fishing is around an oil rig. Fish love structure, and I know my fishing is always better around these types of hot spots.  A downed tree, a dock, a live reef, or an artificial reef – all of these places typically produce great fishing and any fisherman worth his or her salt knows to target them.

That’s why it’s so disconcerting to the Gulf’s recreational fishermen that the Department of Interior has announced its intention to begin enforcing a long-dormant policy requiring the removal of non-producing drilling rigs in the Gulf.  Requiring the blanket removal of these rigs threatens to rob the Gulf of some of its favorite fishing spots. In addition, under a balanced management plan, providing for fishing access and designed for population productivity, the non-producing rigs may be useful in enhancing fish stocks in places where habitat is limiting.

Given these facts, the Department of Interior should halt its plan for blanket removal of these rigs. Recent legislation (S. 1555) introduced by Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana would help modify the policy requiring rig removal and create a “Reef Maintenance Fund” that would finance the maintenance of the artificial reefs created by decommissioned rigs.  Rig owners would be required to contribute approximately half of the cost they would have incurred in removing the rig had they chosen not to participate in the program. Read More »

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