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New NOAA Report Shows Progress Being Made to Rebuild and Sustain Fisheries and Ocean Ecosystems – Catch Shares Help

Cover of NOAA report, Our Living Oceans - 6th edition.

Cover of NOAA report, Our Living Oceans - 6th edition.

In NOAA’s newly released 6th edition of Our Living Oceans: Report on the Status of U.S. Marine Resources, catch shares (referred to as Limited Access Privilege Programs – LAPPs) are raised as one solution to the over-harvesting of fisheries. Citing the successes of established catch share programs, Our Living Oceans reports that the Alaska halibut fishery has seen healthy stocks with near record levels of total catch since the implementation of its catch share program.

Recognizing some challenges of implementing catch shares, the report rightly points out that policies set during the design of a catch share can address those challenges and concerns.

“Additional rules or special programs built into the LAPP either at implementation or after implementation can often mitigate any potential negative impacts.”

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Online Radio Show Dives into Catch Shares

Tom Lalley

Amanda Leland and I were guests on Moir’s Environmental Dialogues the other day.  The host, Rob Moir is the president and executive director of the Ocean River Institute.  Rob has had an illustrious career as an educator, scientists and environmental activist and wanted to hear from EDF about catch shares.  This is an important time for fishing as a new catch shares policy gets underway.

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Listening Sessions with Gullah/Geechee Fishermen Continue

Gullah/Geechee fishermen listening session with EDF and Queen Quet (standing).

Gullah/Geechee fishermen listening session with EDF and Queen Quet (standing).

My journey to engage and build relationships with Southeastern, African-American fishermen continued last week with stops in Florida and Georgia. On Friday and Saturday, I reunited with Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition, to co-sponsor listening sessions in Fernandina, Florida and Brunswick, Georgia. Mirroring the session previously held in South Carolina, the focus of the events was to document the concerns of African-American fishermen in these areas regarding their ability to continue fishing.

Both coastal areas have a large Gullah/Geechee community and a history in the fishing tradition. The Gullah/Geechee have been a part of this history for years. Fishing is truly a valued craft upon which this group places great importance. It enabled them to become self-sufficient, feed their families and neighbors, bring the community together, and generate a sufficient income. However, as seen in fishing communities throughout the United States, many fishermen have left the waters due to various impediments that have made it difficult to continue this way of life.

Fernandina, Florida

Held at the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Fernandina Beach, Queen Quet began the meeting asking attendees to share what the community had and what it has today. According to participants, seafood became a major industry in Fernandina. Equipped with the knowledge of their elders, African-Americans perfected the craft of cast net making, crab picking, and shrimp heading, among other skills. Although the fishermen harvested a variety of fish including shad, porgy, oysters, and shark, most fishermen were shrimpers. 

Participants in the session provided poignant accounts of their relationship with the sea.  Some vividly described events they experienced on the water that were nothing short of miracles; for instance, one fisherman was able to survive turbulent waters for days after his ship capsized. There was an apparent religious connection between the waters and the heavens in the Gullah/Geechee culture.

While some had their prayers answered in such times of need, others witnessed problems developing that complicated African-American participation in fisheries. Attendees noted several issues that affected their ability to fish:

  • The price of fuel blowing out of proportion,
  • Great overhead costs,
  • Diminishing waterfront access,
  • Pollution, and
  • Difficulty competing with the prices of foreign imports.
Coastal ...

Coastal Florida

The community really changed with the emergence of mills; many people left the fish houses to work in mills because of the benefits and wages. The number of small boat owners today is nearly non-existent, and there isn’t a large interest by the youth to fish.

Brunswick, Georgia

During the meeting, Brunswick was described as once being the seafood capitol of the world – oysters were in excess and the conditions were good for shrimp. Today there are two major seafood plants, SeaPak and King & Prince Seafood, among other smaller companies. Such companies had their own boats when they first started, and African Americans served as crew members, but problems began to rise once the supply was gone.

It was believed that around 20 years ago, area companies started to heavily rely on imported fish from Asia and South America. Now, although there is marketing for fish from Georgian waters, fishermen are having trouble competing with the much lower prices of imported seafood.

Fishermen in Brunswick have traditionally harvested whiting, oysters, mullet, catfish, croaker, blue crab, shad, shrimp, oysters, and at one time turtle eggs. There are a handful of boat owners currently; many became discouraged from going out into the waters because of the costs of owning a boat. Concerns raised during the session were similar to those stated in Fernandina:

  • High costs,
  • Overfishing,
  • High levels of mercury,
  • Run-off and pollution from chemical plants,
  • Poor quality of farm raised seafood,
  • Competition with imports, and
  • Scarcity of the resource forcing fishermen to go father away from local fishing grounds.

Is there a future?

When asked if there is sufficient interest here for newcomers to enter the industry, there was a mixed bag of reactions to this question. While some believed they knew of a couple of people interested in teaching the next generation these useful skills, others didn’t believe such efforts were worthwhile.

However, many attendees called for a better fishing future because they see fishing as essential to sustaining their way of life and families. They expressed a need to have young people present in these talks or there will be no future, as this will reconnect children to their culture and history. Queen Quet stated that the community suffers if it does not know how to feed itself. She concluded “we recognize collectively we have something to offer.”

The last listening session is slated for April 17 in North Carolina. All comments made thus far will be reviewed with those in the next session to determine what steps can be taken in addressing some of issues this group is facing.  In understanding the challenges they are dealing with, EDF hopes to work further with the Gullah/Geechee Nation to provide a voice for a culture striving to retain a way of life that gets them back to the way they were.

Nicole Smith is a 2009 – 2010 Oceans Program Fellow working to engage African-American fishermen in the U.S. southeast.

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An Interview with EDF’s Chief Oceans Scientist, Doug Rader

EDF’s Oceans program team is comprised of knowledgeable people with a wide range of experience in fisheries, marine sciences and oceans policy. In continuing with our spotlight on EDF’s passionate and talented Oceans staff, we invite you to learn a little more about our Chief Oceans Scientist, Dr. Doug Rader.

EDF Cheif Oceans Scientist, Doug Rader

EDF Chief Oceans Scientist, Dr. Doug Rader

Where is your family from?

My father’s and mother’s families have lived in North Carolina as long as anyone can remember.  I grew up in Charlotte as a middle child between two brothers.

What made you so interested in the oceans? 

I’ve always been fascinated by nature. When I was a kid, my family went tent camping for weeks every summer on what was then a really isolated part of North Myrtle Beach.  My mom would wake us up long before sunrise to be the first to discover what the sea had brought in: starfish, sea urchins and seaweed. Back at home, I spent my free time wading creeks, searching for snakes, crawfish and turtles. As cliché as it sounds, watching “Sea Hunt,” and “Flipper” propelled a life-long interest in underwater exploration. Recently my wife and I spent 30 minutes “up close and personal” with a whale while scuba diving.

What did you study in college?

I got my Bachelor’s Degree in 1977 from UNC Chapel Hill. I followed with a Masters focusing on Marine Biology from the University of Washington. Then, I got my Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina in Biology, focusing on the ecology of salt marshes. I was studying worms of various types that were so small you had to dye them red to see them under the microscope!

Weren’t you a teacher at one point?

I was hired the day before school started in fall 1984, to be a science and math teacher at the high school in Siler City, North Carolina. I loved it. I also taught Sunday school back when my kids were young.

Where did you work after you left teaching?

After finishing school, I realized I knew a lot about animals and plants, but not much about how ecosystems are managed.  To fill that gap, I worked for North Carolina’s Division of Coastal Management, and then the Division of Environmental Management, focusing on water quality and other coastal resource issues. I was later the first director of the program to save the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary, one of the largest in the U.S. Much of my time there was spent coming to understand fisheries and fishermen.

What have you done at EDF that you are really proud of?

I led a team that analyzed every square mile of US oceans to come up with recommendations for sites that were designated by George W. Bush as marine national monuments. It was a great honor to help preserve some of the most precious areas of the ocean.

Also, for the past ten years, I have chaired the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s panel that’s developing a comprehensive plan for the ocean ecosystem in the region. As part of the plan, we recently announced that more than 23,000 square miles of unmatched deep-sea corals will be preserved. We made sure the corals were protected, but also are allowing fishermen access to certain fishing areas as long as they use gear that won’t damage the coral habitat.

I spent many years helping protect Southeast wetlands and estuaries, which are so important as habitat for fish, birds and many other animals. Our team used a successful lawsuit and a public-private partnership with Weyerhaeuser to plug a major loophole that allowed wetlands to be destroyed while installing pine tree farms, the biggest threat in the region. A similar partnership with Texas-Gulf Inc. cut pollution into the major fish nurseries of the Pamlico River from one of the largest fertilizer complexes in the world by more than 85%. 

We also stopped then-Vice President Dan Quayle from drastically changing the definition of wetlands, which would have meant that many of the nation’s most important wetlands would lose their protection.

What’s something many people don’t know about you?

My main hobby is historical archeology, blending work in musty archives with time in the field to find colonial and Native American sites. I got started when I spotted a bunch of American Indian spear points and wondered why they were there. I’ve now found and registered hundreds of Native American archeological sites in North Carolina. I’ve also now discovered the site of a long-lost Quaker Church, called Contentnea Meeting, active when Lord Cornwallis British Army marched right by on the way to Yorktown in 1781.

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EDF’s Chief Oceans Scientist Talks Catch Shares at WWF

Dr. Doug Rader spoke to scientists, policy analysts and conservationists at WWF’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. as part of the Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Fund seminar seriesDr. Rader spoke about how ever-stringent and complicated measures to control pressure from fishing has failed to stem the tide of collapsed fisheries around the world and in the U.S. , and how fisheries managed under catch shares have a significantly better record of preventing fisheries collapse. Watch the video!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3xikZPRhjQ

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Catch Shares Improves Both Science and Catches

EDF Senior Scientist, Doug Rader

EDF Chief Oceans Scientist, Doug Rader

The track record for catch shares in fishery management is abundantly clear: better science for managers and better access for fishermen.  Certainly, “science vs. catch shares” is a false choice – catch shares provides the best chance to achieve high-powered science while getting fishermen back on the water and back to work. 
Here’s why.

Science in Fisheries Management

Irrespective of the type of management being used, federal law and regulations require that fishing levels be set to both prevent overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks, based on the best available scientific information.  The total fishing mortality for all fishing sectors (commercial, charter boats and private anglers), including both landed and discarded dead fish, cannot by law exceed “overfishing limits” identified by fisheries scientists.

Two kinds of information are used to assess fish stock conditions and set the overfishing limits, fishery-independent data (collected directly by scientists to judge stock conditions), and fishery-dependent data (sampling of fish caught by fishermen, and affected by the fishing mechanism and regulations, typically using catch monitoring or catch accounting methods).  Each type provides different, valuable information about what’s out there, and what is caught.

When there are lots of data of both types, and they are collected using robust methods, the uncertainty in the biology is greatly reduced and we have a much better understanding of what’s happening.  When data are poor in one or both categories, there is a higher level of biological uncertainty, and less confidence that managers understand what’s really occurring in the fishery.

Under federal regulations, biological uncertainty must be subtracted from the overfishing limits to create lower “allowable biological catches” that cannot be exceeded by managers. 

In addition, there is often considerable uncertainty in estimating how a proposed management system will work to achieve allowable biological catches.  Management uncertainty (how well management measures like bag limits, size limits, closures, or catch shares perform in actually hitting management targets) must be subtracted from allowable biological catches in setting “annual catch limits” for fisheries or fishing sectors.

Thus, all types of uncertainty must be accounted for.  The greater the total uncertainty, the lower the allowable catch levels can be—and the less fish for fishermen to catch, for any given stock condition. 

Finally, the levels of fishing allowed for overfished stocks are also set based on how fast those stocks are able and required to rebuild.  In nearly every case, the regional fishery management councils have allowed the longest legal rebuilding time, with the lowest allowable probability of actually rebuilding, given the biological uncertainty involved (50% probability, established in the courts and now by regulation), and the highest legal landings, even though that slows down rebuilding. Read More »

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