EDFish

3 Months In: New Bedford Standard Times Provides Insight into the Progress of Catch Shares in New England

By / Published: September 1, 2010

Julie Wormser, NE Regional Director for EDF Oceans program.

This past Sunday, the New Bedford Standard Times published a set of three articles that gave insight into the progress of sectors (group catch shares) in Massachusetts.

There is good news in the articles:

The fishermen who are fishing are seeing higher revenues, while others are waiting for prices to increase, a strategy they are free to employ under this system.
Sectors such as the one in New Bedford, managed by David deOliveira, are working together to manage their allocations of scarce stocks to “keep everyone fishing.”
Leasing allocations is of real value financially to fishermen considering retirement.

The articles also highlight improvements to the sector system that can and should be made as well as the challenges associated with low catch limits, which is entirely unrelated to catch shares. Many of these issues are currently being discussed by the industry, the New England Fisheries Management Council, and conservation groups.

Many opportunities identified in the articles are a function of how the catch share was designed. Catch shares can be designed to accommodate the communities that depend on fisheries.

Catch limits

As Don Cuddy’s article points out, “Many fishermen believe their economic woes are not a result of sectors or any particular management system but from catch limits that they believe are set artificially low.”

The 2010 catch limits were developed based on NOAA’s best available science. But carefully targeted investments in science and scientific processes – including those outlined by Senators Kerry and Snowe in their recent appropriations request — can provide relatively quick improvement in assessments of key stocks, and may well increase allocation of certain stocks.

There are several design elements that can help the fleet through times of low catch limits. For example, the Pacific groundfish fishery held back ten percent of the quota for “adaptive management” and has already dipped into that quota to provide additional allocations of a particularly weak stock—canary rockfish—for fishermen who lacked enough to legally fish for other species.

Consolidation

In Steve Urbon’s NBST piece, he discusses the “consolidation of the industry.” While that is a concern, it has to be weighed against the consolidation of the fleet that was occurring under the previous Days-At-Sea (DAS) management system.

In the New England groundfish fishery, in 2001, 1,100 active boats used 65,347 groundfish DAS for an average of 60 DAS per active vessel. In 2007, 574 active boats used 32,804 DAS for an average of 57 DAS per active vessel. As the number of days fishermen were allowed out on the water dropped dramatically, so too, did the number of boats fishing.

There are design elements in catch share systems around the world that can alleviate some of the consolidation concerns while supporting fleet diversity, smaller ports, and small-scale fishermen with less access to capital.

For example, quota accumulation caps could be used to limit the amount of fish that any one participant has access to. The Interspecies Committee of the New England Fishery Management Council voted unanimously at its April 2010 meeting to recommend to the full Council that accumulation caps be developed and implemented for the 20 groundfish stocks managed under sectors. This action can help protect the smaller boats by preventing the fleet from being dominated by a few big players.

Limiting permit transferability, ownership and use is also used to achieve specific objectives. For example, some catch share systems require a certain percentage of the harvest to be landed in specific ports to protect the shoreside infrastructure. Other fisheries require quota owners to be on board in order to catch their share in order to discourage corporations from acquiring large amounts of quota.

Moving forward

Much of New England’s fishing community has struggled over the past several decades. Regulations meant to bring back once-abundant cod, flounders and other groundfish have instead squeezed the fleet’s profitability.

Sectors can help the New England groundfishery move towards an increase in fish populations; an increase in per-boat revenues; a dramatic reduction in bycatch and an increase in the use of sustainable fishing practices.

The New Bedford Standard Times has raised important questions and opportunities for improvement in the groundfish fishery. Now is the time to make refinements to New England’s groundfish sectors. There are many options and the best outcomes will likely occur when all stakeholders – fishermen, shoreside businesses, conservation groups, legislators, and Council members — participate in the process with the shared goal of creating a fishery with healthy fish stocks and thriving fishing communities.

Also posted in New England / Tagged Catch Shares, Fishermen, Fishery Management, Groundfish, New England, Sectors | Comments are closed

Pacific Groundfish Catch Shares Approved, Slated to Start Jan 1, 2011

By Johanna Thomas / Bio / Published: August 12, 2010

Johanna Thomas, EDF Oceans - Pacific Coast Regional Director

After seven years of planning, the catch share program for the Pacific groundfish trawl sector has cleared one of its final regulatory hurdles. On Tuesday, NOAA’s Fisheries Service approved the plan submitted by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council to revitalize the multi-million dollar fishery. The new system joins a spate of other new catch share programs around the country, including one for the iconic New England groundfish fishery and the grouper and red snapper fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.

In the West Coast groundfish sector, fishermen have struggled to make a living under the current management system and have been plagued by increasingly strict regulations to address the incidental catch (bycatch) of depleted fish species. Landings for West Coast trawlers had plummeted 70 percent in the last two decades, and since 1998 revenues have dropped from $47.3 million to $22.2 million.

The new system provides fishermen with a guaranteed percentage of the overall catch, based on the size of their vessel and their fishing history. Under catch shares, fishermen will have much greater freedom to fish when they want, and will also be able to sell or lease their shares to other fishermen. Based on results from other fisheries that have transitioned to catch shares, bycatch is expected to drop dramatically for the West Coast trawl fleet, allowing fish stocks and the industry to recover from years of decline.

We applaud both NOAA and the Pacific Fishery Management Council for taking this important step. This is a new day for a fishery that was declared a disaster just ten years ago. From now on, West Coast trawlers will not be in a rush to fish and deliver their catch. Instead, they will time their trips in accordance with both weather and market forecasts, maximizing their profits while fishing in a safer, more efficient, and sustainable way.

The approved plan includes precedent-setting provisions aimed at protecting coastal communities and the environment. There are several features in the plan that makes it stand out as a model for sustainable and adaptive fisheries management. The Council and NOAA have seen to it that fishermen and coastal communities have a real say in how they adopt new practices and adapt to the catch share system.

Years from now, when we look back on this moment, we’ll see that this was a turning point for West Coast trawlers and the groundfish species they harvest.

Also posted in Pacific / Tagged Catch Shares, Fisheries, Fishery Management, Groundfish, Management, NOAA, Pacific Coast | Comments are closed

The Future of the Pacific Groundfish Trawl Fishery Without the Catch Share Program

By Merrick Burden / Bio / Published: August 5, 2010

Merrick Burden - Senior Fisheries Economist

Fishermen in the Pacific groundfish trawl fishery are understandably anxious about the transition to catch shares that starts January 2011, but it’s helpful to consider what is likely to happen if the fishery is left under current management. Perhaps the biggest problem facing fishermen and fishery managers is that eight out of over 90 species caught by fishermen are overfished. To protect these overfished species, fishery managers have closed parts of the ocean to fishing by creating “Rockfish Conservation Areas” that have changed shape in response to locations of overfished species. In recent years, productive fishing grounds off Washington and southern Oregon have been among the areas closed. If current management were to continue there would likely be more closures off other areas of the coast.

I’ve had the experience of working as a fishery manager in the Pacific commercial groundfish fishery for over 6 years and have seen how the existing management system is slowly suffocating the industry and fishing communities. Avoiding closures is just one reason why I see the groundfish trawl IFQ (catch share) program as progress in Pacific groundfish fishery management.

Also posted in Pacific / Tagged Catch Shares, Fisheries, Fishery Management, Groundfish, Pacific, Regulations | Comments are closed

Catch Share Design Case Study: Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Pilot Conservation Cooperation

By Kate Bonzon / Bio / Published: July 29, 2010

Our last case study in this week’s Catch Share Conversation about harvesting cooperatives comes from the Gulf of Alaska. In 2007, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council implemented a five year pilot cooperative program in the commercial sector of the Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Fishery. The program was designed to address problems of overcapacity and derby fishing and to meet various additional goals. After three years, the pilot program is meeting its goals of ending the race for fish, improving product quality, protecting shore plants and communities, and decreasing bycatch and discards.

Prior to cooperative formation, the fishery was plagued by problems due to traditional management approaches including overcapitalization, shrinking fishing seasons, decreased safety and poor product quality. The fishing season shrunk to a dismal derby-filled three weeks. Read the full case study of how the Rockfish cooperative combines a number of design features to meet their goals including shares for target and bycatch species, provisions for new entrants, limitations on trading and more.

Also posted in Pacific / Comments are closed

Want to Help California’s Economy? Eat a Lobster.

By Wade Crowfoot / Published: July 26, 2010

Next time you’re lucky enough to crack open a lobster, consider this: you may be doing your part to stimulate California’s economy.

Lobster fishing in California takes place from October to March in Southern California— from Point Conception around Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Business has been solid in recent years: 728,000 pounds of lobster were landed in the 2008-09 season by the state’s 200-plus commercial lobster fishermen. Sales to local markets, as well as Asia, generated about $8 million in economic activity.

But looming threats exist to lobstermen’s livelihoods. As The San Diego Union Tribune recently reported, “In coming months, state officials plan to expand a set of marine reserves under the Marine Life Protection Act that likely will shut down vast tracts of coastline to lobster fishing, including a prime spot off the coast of La Jolla, that will take away about 20 percent of the state’s lobster catch.”

Protected areas are critical to the state’s fisheries, as they allow species to survive and thrive. In many cases, these protected areas increase the amount of seafood that can eventually be harvested along the coast. At the same time, these protected areas and changing rules mean that fisheries have to update the way that they manage themselves. Scientific monitoring of species and new management techniques are needed to allow both fishermen and the environment to thrive. But then questions arise over how to fund the new science and management reforms in a fragile economy.

This is where the creativity of the lobstermen comes in:

California’s government is cash-strapped and the Department of Fish and Game (DFG), while prioritizing the lobster fishery, doesn’t have the money to advance management reforms. Lobstermen have stepped up with a unique approach that starts to build funding for improvements. They’ve asked the state to form a private-public partnership to create rules that will protect lobster populations while improving the economies of California’s coastal fishing communities.

The California Lobster and Trap Fishermen’s Association, environmentalists and Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña (D-San Diego) have teamed up to propose an annual $300 fee on holders of the state’s 204 lobster fishing permits. This annual fee amounts to about 14 lobsters per fisherman (give or take). Resulting revenues would go directly into a fund to make improvements to the fisheries that fishermen and DFG prioritize. The legislation – AB 408 – has passed the Assembly and is awaiting Senate action.

Lobster fishermen are hoping their offer to fund a piece of what’s needed for better science and management will attract money from other sources such as the state Ocean Protection Council and the California Fisheries Fund (CFF), a philanthropic revolving-loan fund that lends money to fishing communities to improve fishing sustainability. Since CFF makes loans, not grants, it requires borrowers to prove an income stream, which is just what the $300 annual fee would help create.

As we’ve argued in EDF’s California Dream 2.0 blog, California can lead the way with new approaches to protect the environment while growing our economy. AB 408 is such a ‘win-win’ idea, empowering lobstermen to improve the marine environment while improving their industry’s bottom line. Lobstermen won’t be able to fund the necessary improvements alone, but their willingness to put skin in the game will encourage other funders to see this industry offer for what it is: a sustainable way to manage its lobster fishery, help fishing communities thrive and protect the ocean.

Also posted in Pacific, Seafood / Tagged California Fisheries Fund, Lobster, Pacific, Seafood | Comments are closed