EDFish

West Coast Fishermen Prepare for Transition to Catch Shares

By / Bio / Published: November 8, 2010

On the West Coast, catch share management of the groundfish trawl fishery will take effect on January 1, 2011. The culmination of a seven year process, catch shares represent a major shift in the ways that West Coast trawlers – and other fishery stakeholders – will conduct their business.

Fishermen who will operate under the new system have benefited from hearing from their counterparts in British Columbia, where catch shares were established for the groundfish trawl fishery 13 years ago. Some of the province’s leading trawl fishermen shared their perspectives at a recent industry workshop held in Santa Rosa, CA.

This type of information exchange is just one example of how West Coast fishermen are gearing up for the new program.  A reporter for the Half Moon Bay Review recently talked with a few of those fishermen, including Steve Fitz.

“Under the new program, there is 100 percent accountability, meaning every pound of catch is accounted for against your quota. This forces people to think of more innovative ways to be intelligent about the way they fish. Environmentally and over the long run, this will be a good program,” says Fitz.

Read the full article in the Half Moon Bay Review.

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NOAA Finalizes National Catch Share Policy

By / Bio / Published: November 4, 2010
Amanda Leland, EDF Oceans Program - National Policy Director

Amanda Leland, EDF Oceans Program - National Policy Director

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today released a responsible policy to “encourage well-designed catch share programs to help maintain or rebuild fisheries, and sustain fishermen, communities and vibrant working waterfronts, including the cultural and resource access traditions that have been part of this country since its founding.” EDF applauds this policy because it will restore fisheries and improve fishermen’s lives and livelihoods. 

For too long the government has propped up a failed system of ocean fishery management. Conventional management has resulted in shrinking fishing seasons, fishery closures, and increased waste.  Fishermen are faced with burdensome and ineffective regulations. Because of this today’s fishing jobs are dangerous, part-time, and relatively unstable1, and more than 60 federal fish stocks are classified as overfished or undergoing overfishing. Rebuilt fisheries could increase the dockside value of commercially-caught fish by $2.2B (54% above current value) in the US2.

Catch shares management is the right approach because it improves the conservation of the fishery, drives economic growth, and empowers fishermen to have stable, profitable businesses. Unlike conventional management, which manages the details of how fishermen conduct their business, catch shares provide fishermen with flexibility — allowing them to be more targeted and efficient. This means overfishing ends, wasteful bycatch declines, and revenues increase.  Jobs under well-designed catch shares tend to be full-time, higher-paying, safer and more secure over the short and long terms3.

NOAA views catch share programs as “powerful tools to manage fisheries sustainably and improve their economic performance.”  Catch shares help shift ocean fisheries from an economic drain to a driver of growth and prosperity.  The policy has been in effect in a draft form since December 2009.  Changes to the final policy reflect the thousands of comments received since the draft was released.

The policy is focused on providing support, leadership and resources to fishery management councils, fishermen, and other interested stakeholders in order to maximize the effectiveness, flexibility, and application of catch shares. Specifically the policy will:

  • Reduce technical and administrative impediments to catch shares,
  • Provide expertise and related support to assist the development of new catch share programs,
  • Inform and educate stakeholders of the different options and capabilities of catch share programs, and
  • Coordinate data collection, research and performance of catch shares.

It’s important to note that the policy does not mandate that fisheries adopt catch shares.  Rather, the policy states that ‘[c]ouncils should consider the appropriateness of catch share programs and decide which, if any, sectors may benefit from their use.”

Fishermen might be interested in the following aspects of the policy in particular:

  • Transition support: NOAA has demonstrated leadership in providing support to help fishermen through the transition as fisheries recover biologically and economically under catch shares.  The policy highlights this point.  In addition, NOAA and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced an Innovation Fund to help build capacity in catch share fisheries and communities. NOAA’s request to Congress for $54 million for Fiscal Year 2011 appropriations includes funding to help fishermen in the New England and Pacific groundfish fisheries cover costs of new catch share programs. 
  • Other resources: The policy also encourages fishermen and communities to work with NOAA in gaining access to additional resources of the Department of Commerce including the Economic Development Agency and the Small Business Administration. 
  • Fishery management for recreational fishermen: The policy includes some important guidance and options forward related to recreational fisheries management, both for private anglers and for charter/for-hire fishermen.  This includes encouragement that fishery councils periodically revisit the underlying allocation of fish to each sector, regardless of whether a sector of a fishery is under a catch share or not.

The policy highlights that NOAA “will support Councils in the identification and application of innovative management measures that both promote individual recreational angler fishing access and foster sustainable communities,” but the agency doesn’t advocate the use of catch shares for individual private anglers.  

The policy promotes the important role of the charter boat/for-hire sector to the U.S. economy and recreational access.  Some charter/for-hire captains have expressed interest in developing a catch share program for their sector of the fishery.  NOAA will work with the interested councils and charter fishermen interested in developing pilot catch share programs.

Catch shares work for fishermen and fish populations because they include science-based annual catch limits, accountability measures to ensure compliance with those limits, and effective enforcement. At the same time, catch shares give fishermen greater flexibility for how to run their businesses which improves economic performance.

Catch shares are not a one-size-fits-all management system. They can be designed to fit the needs of individual fisheries, which sets them apart from conventional management. Catch shares have been implemented in about 275 fisheries around the world from New Zealand to Namibia to Norway, in fisheries large and small. There are now 25 catch share programs in the U.S. and more are under development.

1 Redstone Strategy Group, LLC. 2007. Assessing the potential for LAPPs in U.S. fisheries. Report prepared for Environmental Defense, 41 pp., Washington, DC.
2 NOAA. National Catch Share Policy. 2010.
3 Redstone Strategy Group, LLC. 2007. Assessing the potential for LAPPs in U.S. fisheries. Report prepared for Environmental Defense, 41 pp., Washington, DC.

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Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association Hosts Seafood Festival

By / Published: November 3, 2010
Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association Seafood Festival - People preparing food under a white tent

Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association Seafood Festival in St. Helena Island, SC.

A perk of working with fishermen is of course getting a chance to taste some of the best seafood around. When I learned that the Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association would organize its very first annual seafood festival, I didn’t need to be convinced that it would feature the finest dishes in the Lowcountry. Held last Saturday in St. Helena Island, SC, the festival brought together visitors, neighbors, families, and friends for a celebration of good eating. 

The event was a fundraiser and membership drive for the newly founded organization. GGFA formed earlier this year as an outcome of meetings led by EDF and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition to reach out to the African-American fishing community in the Southeast. Many within this community identify themselves as Gullah/Geechee, the descendents of West African enslaved people brought to the United States nearly 400 years ago.

Gullah/Geechee Seafood Festival - Container of collard greens, macaroni and cheese, cornbread and stuffed crab and other seafood.

Delicious food from the Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association Seafood Festival

On Saturday, the air was flooded with the aroma of savory, traditional Gullah/Geechee seafood cuisine. Fried shrimp, whiting, flounder, oysters, deviled crab, steamed crab, shrimp and grits, and gumbo were only some of the dishes the association had to offer during the festivities. Members of the association supplied much of the seafood and served as chefs providing mouth watering fish hot off the stove. The food was nothing short of a feast.

In an interview earlier last week, Queen Quet, head of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and secretary of GGFA, conveyed the cultural significance of the festival. According to Queen Quet, it is important to support GGFA because of its objective to passed down this customary knowledge to the next generation. For the Gullah/Geechee, fishing is an aspect of their culture worth honoring. It is a life skill that endured the African Diaspora and later helped to provide financial independence for the people. Thus ensuring healthy marine resources is an essential piece to protecting this “unbroken” tradition.

Oyster shells in a large plastic white basket

Oyster shells

Turnout for the event was strong, helping to raise enough money just shy of the association’s goal. In lieu of the successful festival, the GGFA is already looking into plans for next year. 

Congratulations to GGFA for putting on a great event. The level of hard work that went into it was evident throughout the joyous occasion and was reflected in the delectable dishes.  Luckily for those who missed out, you have a year to work up an appetite for the next festival; I can promise you it will be worth the wait.

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Crabbing in South Carolina: A Day on the Water Provides Real-World Perspective

By / Bio / Published: October 29, 2010
South Carolina waterman, Fred Dockery, hauling crab traps on Stono River in SC.

South Carolina waterman, Fred Dockery, hauling crab traps on Stono River in SC.

Last week, I made my first visit to Charleston, South Carolina for a national meeting of fisheries scientists. Before settling into the meeting room for three long days, I spent a day on the water with Fred Dockery, a local commercial fisherman, to learn more about his work.

Fred and I first got in touch more than a year ago and began a correspondence based on our shared interest in oyster toadfish, a species once described in a scientific paper as “grotesque” and one that only a fisherman or ichthyologist can truly love! Although many people look down upon them, toadfish have made important contributions to neurological research, boost production of natural and cultured shellfish by controlling predators of young clams, oysters, scallops and mussels, and support small commercial fisheries in Delaware Bay and Long Island.

Toadfish were not, however, the order of the day. Instead, our quarry was the famous blue crab, an icon of the Chesapeake Bay but also plentiful in South Carolina waters. Fred primarily fishes for blue crab, but like many small-scale coastal fishermen he earns his living harvesting a variety of local resources, including shrimp, clams and oysters. We also encountered stone crabs in his traps and did so carefully, for their tasty claws are much more powerful than those of a blue crab and can do much more damage.

Stone crabs and blue crabs from the South Carolina Stono River.

Stone crabs and blue crabs from the South Carolina Stono River.

I was not the first guest Fred had welcomed aboard his boat.  Writers from the Food & Wine blog and Hugging the Coast magazine had previously fished with Fred and written about the experience, tying his livelihood with the splendid cuisine of the Carolina lowcountry. In fact, I wasn’t even the first scientist to accompany Fred who has participated in collaborative research with state and federal biologists, and even co-authored a scientific report on a study of dolphin entanglements that he helped conduct.

Fred and I launched his 19-foot boat near the eastern mouth of the Stono River from James Island. The Stono has no purely freshwater stretch along its length, and instead is primarily flooded and drained by tides rising and falling from the Atlantic. At its most upstream reaches, the Stono connects with the North Edisto River and together they form the semicircular backbone of a productive system of tidal creeks and marshes.

Aerial view of the Stono River in South Carolina.

Aerial view of the Stono River in South Carolina.

Hailing from the Northeast, where natural oyster beds and reefs have all but vanished from most coastal waters, I was particularly struck by the abundance of oysters. I noticed how, in many places along the Stono, oysters grow right along the marsh edge, helping to trap and stabilize sediments and buffer the marsh from erosion due to storms and boat wake. The importance of these types of habitat mosaics is a poorly understood and even more poorly appreciated aspect of coastal ecosystems, although a developing restoration plan for the Hudson-Raritan estuary in New York and New Jersey notably includes habitat mosaics as a key goal.

Fred and I worked our way north on the Stono for nearly 10 miles, pulling and resetting traps, and sorting the catch. I saw first-hand the upstream shift from female- to male-dominated catch, and felt the sharp sting resulting from the inescapable reality that blue crabs are much faster than I am, even out of the water and on my turf. Fred, on the other hand, long ago perfected moves that allow him to avoid the steady grunts of “ouch!” coming from my end of the culling board. Still, as the day wore on, practice and trust in my heavy rubber gloves made me bolder with the crabs and quicker with the cull.

Blue crabs by the marsh on the Stono River in SC.

Blue crabs by the marsh on the Stono River in SC.

Our fishing day ended in time for Fred to head downtown for a meeting.  Fred is a fisherman who takes very seriously his responsibilities off the water. He serves on the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Seafood Alliance, and is an active advocate for limited entry in the South Carolina blue crab fishery. The primary goal of limited entry is trap reduction in order to ensure that fishing effort is commensurate with resource productivity. Reducing effort as permits expire and are not renewed will eliminate opportunistic and out-of-state fishermen, and in doing so secure fishing businesses for those who are truly invested (financially and through their identity) in the fishery on a regular basis and for the long-haul.

The timing of my trip with Fred could not have been better, given that my next few days were spent buried in the intricacies of fisheries science. Our excursion provided a renewed awareness of the importance of scientists keeping close to the water through field research, time on commercial fishing boats, or simply sport fishing in their spare time in order to keep the math and models in our heads balanced alongside real-world perspective. I was also reminded of the importance of regular dialogue and cooperation between scientists and fishermen so that each can understand and incorporate the other’s perspectives and ideas in meeting shared goals of productive and sustainable fisheries.

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Collaboration with Industry is Crucial to Protect Fish and Put Fishermen Back on the Water

By / Bio / Published: October 28, 2010
Heather Paffe, Regional Director, Gulf of Mexico and Southeast

Heather Paffe, Regional Director, Gulf of Mexico and Southeast - EDF Oceans

In many fisheries, the rules for recreational fishing are tightened every year. This is bad for charter, tackle and other businesses; it keeps anglers off the water and it threatens the U.S.’s long-standing fishing heritage.

It’s clear that current fishing rules aren’t working.  EDF believes that collaboration between conservationists, fishermen, and managers is the best way to find a new management approach that works to protect fish – so that they’re more plentiful in the future – and put fishermen back on the water. If things don’t change, the federal government will continue to impose more rules, such as widespread closures.

Last week EDF hosted a collaborative workshop with for-hire (charter) fishermen from across the country to understand how their fishery management can be improved in order to truly recover popular fisheries.  Understanding if catch shares could work for for-hire fisheries was an important part of this discussion.  This workshop is one among many in which EDF has reached out to fishermen to better understand their concerns and discuss potential solutions that work to improve fishermen’s access and catches as well as recover fish populations.  Sportsmen already carry a well-known conservation ethic, which will help guide future progress.

Future access for responsible recreational fishing is threatened due to flawed federal management practices and a “business as usual” approach will only accelerate this trend. We can and should advance innovative reforms that build off the existing conservation ethic of sustainability through stewardship that our nation’s sportsmen embody. It all begins by starting the conversation.

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Alaska Fishermen Speak on Improved Safety Under Catch Share Management

By / Published: October 27, 2010

A short video by the Marine Conservation Alliance includes interviews from fishermen about how much safer fishing has become in Alaska under catch share management.

One fisherman explains that before catch shares the crab fishing season, “was long enough that everybody was exhausted and you went beyond what maybe you should. And short enough that you couldn’t stop and rest.” Another fisherman states that with the catch share management system, “I don’t have to race for fish.”

Earlier this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that in 2009 fishing was – once again – the deadliest job in America. The profession is often made more dangerous by traditional fishing regulations that sharply curtail when fishermen can be on the water. This increases pressure to catch as many fish or shellfish as quickly as possible. Fishermen sometimes go fishing even in the face of dangerous weather, overload their boats with equipment, and work much longer hours. Under catch shares, fishermen have far more flexibility on when to fish as long as they stay within their specified quota allotment for the season.

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