Management & Regulation

In June, the Environmental Defense Fund considered a critique of privatized fisheries — a goal of EDF — by Ecotrust Canada and found that the two organizations generally agree.

It was a conclusion Ecotrust Canada did not share.

EDF’s Johanna Thomas wrote in an Environmental Defense Fund blog that she "just read ‘A Cautionary Tale About ITQs in BC Fisheries’ by Ecotrust Canada.

"What struck me most is that we seem to be moving beyond the debate about whether catch shares provide conservation benefits. It’s clear that they do.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

See also: Study cautions against repeating mistakes of B.C.’s speculative fishing quota markets.

Federal oceans administrator Jane Lubchenco and the two environmental lobbies that were her stepping stones into the Obama administration promote privatizing the wild stocks of the sea into tradeable commodities — or fishermen’s "catch shares" — as a scientifically proven antidote to what ails New England’s and the nation’s fisheries. But the science comes from a narrow circle of fellow travelers in the orbits of the Pew Environment Group and the Environmental Defense Fund — ENGOs or environmental non-government organizations in which Lubchenco held pivotal positions before her appointment to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And from other quarters — Europe, British Columbia and the New England Fisheries Science Center — the implementation of the catch share regulatory system, set to take effect for Gloucester fishermen and the New England fishery next year, has sparked counter claims and a fierce debate about the effectiveness of the catch share format and their social and environmental impacts.

Just last week, Europe’s top fishery official proposed ending a quarter-century experiment in catch shares.

Research from at least three other sources earlier this summer have also raised serious questions about the economic, environmental and social impact of catch shares or their close relatives, individual fishing quotas, IFQs, or individual transferable quotas or ITQs.

In June, Seth Macinko and William Whitmore of the Department of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island published a report on sectors, the voluntary fishing cooperatives that will begin working under catch shares next May. Commissioned by the Mass. Division of Marine Fisheries, the paper warned that converting the common resources into tradeable commodities will not reduce "or solve the bycatch" problem, but will likely accelerate industry consolidation — which seems to be a universal outgrowth of fish stock privatization in almost all forms.

July brought a socio-economic study by Ecotrust Canada that disputed claims of wondrous improvements in the ecosystems and economies of fisheries converted into privatized models. It also brought a bitter exchange between Ecotrust Canada and the EDF, which in public has been pushing catch shares as a conservation panacea and in private as an investment capable of yielding windfall profits.

Read the complete at The Gloucester Daily Times.

NOAA Fisheries Service announces their expectation to provide increased at-sea monitoring for all segments of the Northeast multi-species fishery for the 2010 fishing year. President Obama’s 2010 budget has proposed sufficient funding for NOAA to contract additional at-sea monitors to supplement the observer coverage currently provided through the Northeast Fishery Observer Program (NEFOP) to support the Standardized By-catch Reporting Methodology (SBRM). Although Congress still must agree to support this funding, NOAA has begun planning to provide this increased coverage.

The notice in part reads,

"…Sector managers have been notified that NMFS also expects to provide at least 30% at-sea monitoring coverage, in addition to NEFOP SBRM observer coverage, for vessels fishing under the newly expanded sector management program…"

See the entire notice here.

In a letter dated Sept 1, NOAA Fisheries Service has announced that the 2009 Open Area Observer Days-at-Sea (DAS) Set-aside has been fully utilized. Therefore, for any Open Area scallop trip departing after 0001 hours, September 9, 2009  on which NOAA randomly mandates that an observer must on board, the vessel must bear the cost of that observer without compensation.

The letter from NOAA Regional Administrator Patricia Kurkul reminds vessels that "You must still comply with all the observer notification requirements, and owners will be responsible for paying the cost of observers, if selected to carry observers on an Open Area trip. The Atlantic sea scallop regulations at 50 CFR 648.60(d)(2) state that vessel owners are responsible for paying the cost of observers, regardless of whether the vessel lands or sells scallops on that trip, and regardless of the availability of set-aside for an increased possession limit."

Read the complete notice from NOAA.

NOAA’s Fisheries Service will implement catch shares in the Gulf of Mexico commercial grouper and tilefish fisheries beginning January 1, 2010, in an effort to reduce overcapacity and improve profitability and working conditions for commercial fishermen of these species.

NOAA is acting based on a recommendation from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to implement individual fishing quotas (IFQ), a type of catch share program, for these fish in the Gulf. This program does not alter the current allocations of fish between the commercial and recreational sectors, and it does not prevent the Gulf Council from requesting allocation changes in the future.

“Catch share programs are useful strategies to improve the environmental and economic benefits of our nation’s fisheries,” said Dr. Roy Crabtree, southeast regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries Service. “I applaud the council for working closely with commercial fishermen, environmental groups, and others on this significant accomplishment.”

Read the complete story from NOAA News.

They are now embarking, after years of work and negotiation, on the latest system in fisheries management, known as "catch share." Fishermen are given their own individual shares of the total catch, personal responsibility for not catching overfished species, and a promise of better prices for the fish they do haul up.

 

 

"There is nothing magical about catch shares rescuing overfished stocks, but they do change the incentives so that the fishermen who have a dedicated share of a stock know they will be the ones who benefit when stocks are rebuilt," said co-author Ray Hilborn, fishery sciences professor at University of Washington.

 

Not everyone in the 120-boat West Coast groundfish fleet will be a winner under the new rules. An analysis estimates 50 to 70 boats will be left with fishing permits after things sort out. The remainder will have to stop groundfishing.

 

"In the short term it might hurt people. In the long term I think it’s the way to go," said Todd Whaley, 46, part-owner and skipper of the Miss Sarah, a 102-foot trawler that he rigs for groundfish, Pacific whiting, andcrab, depending on the market.

 

Catch share gets rid of the traditional race for fish, where fishermen go full-bore until they fill an overall quota, or inadvertently catch too many overfished species — known as bycatch.

 

With their own quota, fishermen can fish when the weather and market are best. With that comes individual responsibility for not exceeding limits on bycatch. Those who do can buy shares to cover the excess. To reward captains who avoid bycatch, and penalize those who don’t, each West Coast groundfish trawler will have an observer on board to count every fish hauled up in the net. 

 

Read the complete story at WHNT 19 News.

Shortages in official catch histories are showing up in reconciliations of about 10 percent of the commercial federal permit holders, according to Vito Giacalone, the region’s statistical and sector guru. The National Marine Fisheries Service has acknowledged problems with their calculations, but says it will not attempt to make corrections in time to affect the relative catch share grants to fishermen for the 2010 fishing season.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which calculated and distributed and 10 year catch histories (1996-2006) to fishermen — to help them evaluate options for determining individual catch shares — recognizes the somewhat common existence of errors in their data.

"We are continuing to audit our data and encouraging vessel owners to let us know if they see any potential errors," said NMFS spokeswoman Maggie Mooney-Seus. "We will investigate any errors and, where appropriate, make corrections."

However, Mooney-Seus said the complexity of making corrections bars rectifying catch histories for 2010, which is the inaugural year of the sector/catch share program. Beginning next year, the sectors will operate under a catch share system.

Imprecise data collection and processing has also been cited repeatedly by fishing interests and lawyers as a root cause of misguided prosecutions of fishermen by the law enforcement arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.