EDFish

Disaster Funds and Cod Problems: Setting the Record Straight about Fisheries in New England

By / Bio / Published: October 18, 2012
Cod

Photo from NOAA

New England has received a lot of media attention recently about the fisheries disaster declared by President Barack Obama. The precipitous decline in groundfish in New England waters has created an imminent need to help fishermen and fishing communities that depend on stable healthy fish populations.

It is important to dispense with false rumors and to set the record straight.  There is an effort on the part of some to claim that catch shares are somehow responsible for the New England groundfish population declines. To claim this is to suggest that fishermen have exceeded their catch limits and are not following the rules. This is simply not true. In fact, sector fishermen have been working hard to stay under their catch limits, and in some cases remain well below these limits.

In reality, the disaster declaration was based on the fact that there are changes happening in the ecosystem that are impeding the rebuilding of fish populations.  We are forced to confront the frightening reality that fishing is changing in part because our oceans are changing.  We are dealing with a resource problem, not a management problem. Read More »

Posted in New England / Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments are closed

Accumulation Limits a Critical Component of Catch Shares to Provide Benefits to Fishing Families and Communities

By / Published: October 17, 2012

Small boatCatch shares, a fishery management system that gives fishermen a secure share of the catch in exchange for increased monitoring and greater accountability, represent a substantial change from the way U.S. fisheries have been managed in the past.

Well-designed catch shares – particularly when they include accumulation limits – can provide safeguards for small boat fishermen, their families, and their communities. Because these are the people who are hurt most when fisheries collapse, EDF believes it is imperative to ensure that management programs take the needs of both fish and fishermen into account.  Catch shares are uniquely suited to do so in a number of ways that conventional fishery management plans could not.

For example, conventional fishery management plans typically call for shortened seasons and even closures when overfishing or other factors deplete stocks. This unpredictability of management can endanger smaller operators more than bigger ones, since they may not have the flexibility to weather the changes.  Because catch shares usually allow fishermen to operate all year long, they provide far greater job stability for fishermen, who know in advance how much fish they can catch during the season and what their needs will be at any given time. They can spread their catch out over the year, avoiding the gluts that occur when everyone brings in their catch at once and timing trips to maximize the price they’ll earn for that catch. Some fishermen are working directly with processors so they are fishing for species that are most sought-after at the most desirable times, earning the highest price per fish. Read More »

Posted in International / Tagged , , , , , | Comments are closed

October Brings Even More Closures to the South Atlantic

By / Published: October 3, 2012

 If you think the headlines about fishery closures in the South Atlantic are getting old, imagine being a fisherman in the region.  As these closures continue to pile up, they are looking at months off the water.

On October 8, 2012 the commercial black sea bass fishery will close for the year.  The fishery opened on July 1, 2012 after having eliminated half of its fishermen – many who had made serious investments in gear and relied on black sea bass for many years.  This was a result of a fishery management tool called “endorsements” implemented by the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council.

Endorsements eliminate fishermen from a specific fishery to handle overfishing by setting a minimum average of pounds of fish that fishermen must have caught in the past to receive an “endorsement” to fish for that species in the 2012 season. The unfortunate truth about endorsements is that conservation-practicing fishermen who fish with less gear, catch less fish, and are paid a higher price for their quality fish are forced out of the fishery in favor of those who use more gear, catch more fish, and flood the market with lower quality fish.

In South Carolina this program eliminated 80 percent of the fishermen who had previously been trapping sea bass. It hurt fishing families throughout the region, and especially in the Carolinas – where in some fishing towns, not a single fisherman received an endorsement.  To make this hardship worse, after all of that, this year’s season only lasted 55 days longer than the previous year.

Fishermen are willing to sacrifice to ensure the long-term sustainability of the fish, but a program that results in blanket removal of fisherman, without any hope for a future stake in the fishery, isn’t good policy.

More closures are coming for fishermen in this region and the question of how long they can hang on is getting harder to answer.  The outdated command and control management isn’t working for the stocks and isn’t working for the fishermen.  They deserve better. Read More »

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged , | Comments are closed

New Science Paper: Status and Solutions for the World’s Unassessed Fisheries

By / Published: September 27, 2012
Grey Reef Sharks (Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) cruise through the reef passes among large schools of surgeonfish in Fakarava, French Polynesia.

Photo Credit: Gerick Bergsma 2010/Marine Photobank

The world’s fish stocks can be rebuilt to provide more nourishment and economic value to the millions of people who rely on the ocean for food—if we step up now and make aligning these incentives a global priority.

The magazine Science has published a study that provides new insights into thousands of fisheries where scientific data has not been historically available.  These “data poor” fisheries make up a majority of the world’s catch, around 80 percent. According to this new research, many of these fisheries are facing collapse, but there is still time to turn the situation around. The study indicates that it is possible for fisheries to recover globally, which would increase the abundance of fish in the ocean by 56% and in some fisheries’ yields could more than double.

With these new assessments, fishery managers and world leaders can have a more comprehensive view of the status of our global fisheries.  There are many new insights into previously unmeasured fisheries, using new methodology that can have enormous implications for managing the resource sustainably.

The report also provides some hope and insights on how the world can reverse these trends. Read More »

Posted in International, Science/Research / Tagged , , , , | Comments are closed

Live Panel Discussion Today- “Using Market Mechanisms to Support Sustainable Fisheries Management

By / Published: September 26, 2012

What makes so many fisheries collapse? Why are dozens bouncing back? Can self-interest improve open-access fishing? Where does a McDonald’s “Filet-of-Fish” come from? How much is a wild fish worth on the market? Do monopolies help or hurt? Which regulations improve outcomes? Is competition good or bad? And whose ocean is it, anyway?

These are tough questions. But today three individuals plan to answer them with compelling stories.

Seven years ago, the Kinship Conservation fellowship began combining the best aspects of markets and conservation, and brought these three strangers together from southern Africa, California and Maryland. At the time, each focused on wildly different challenges – respectively, dam impacts, coastal management, wildlife resources – and unique perspectives: for-profit, non-profit, and government.

But now EDF’s Jamie Workman, Kate Bonzon, and Assistant Secretary at the Department of Commerce for Conservation and Management,  Eric Schwaab, are reuniting on the same panel  to argue which, when, why, where, for whom and how well-managed catch shares have become the most effective form of management to restore depleted ocean fisheries.

Kinship equipped them with unconventional leadership ideas, approaches, tools, and relationships – a combination that has begun to pay off in unexpected ways.

Watch their live panel discussion today, “Using Market Mechanisms to Support Sustainable Fisheries Management” streaming live at 3:30 pm Pacific Time.

Posted in Science/Research / Comments are closed

More Closures Coming For South Atlantic Fishermen

By / Published: September 26, 2012

 

Source: JamesAlan1986 at en.wikipedia

Earlier this month the South Atlantic was hit with a number of closures.  Many fishermen will be off the water until April 2013 and now the Southeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service has announced another closure.

The Commercial Vermillion Snapper fishery will close on September 28th, 2012.  The fishery has exceeded its catch limit and will be closed through the end of the year.

This is an important fishery in the region, but short seasons are nothing new to the fishermen.  While there was good news for commercial yellowtail snapper fishermen, whose season has been extended, more closures are expected for commercial fishermen in the region. Many are worried about how they will survive such a long time off the water.

There are better ways to manage fisheries, and fishermen in the Southeast deserve better options than this.

Posted in Uncategorized / Tagged , | Comments are closed