For more than a quarter century, the ocean has been a central part of my life – I take paying customers out to fish a variety of species, including summer flounder, striped bass, cod, tuna, and shark. I grew up on the sea and learned about the ocean from my father. When I was 10, he bought me my first 12-foot wood skiff that I motored around Narragansett Bay. My father was also a high school science teacher who taught oceanography, biology and aquaculture. For him, the sea has always been about education and respect. Together we now operate a small, two-boat, charter-fishing and diving business.
For much of my career I kept my head down and focused on what I do best – fish. But, as a charter-boat operator, an important component of my job is education. After spending thousands of hours on the ocean, one lesson is becoming increasingly clear – the ocean is not limitless; nor is our current industry model sustainable. Fortunately, there is a solution that offers an alternative – the catch-shares system.
Catch shares are a way of managing fisheries that allocate a percentage of the annual catch to participating fishermen and monitor and enforce those allocations, while providing fishermen like me improved flexibility and control of our businesses. This means I decide when I fish and can provide my customers the excitement of fishing a run of summer flounder rather than limiting them to ever-decreasing daily bag limits or seasonal closures. This flexibility is critical to our livelihoods. How many people are willing to pay me enough to make a living so they have the thrill of bringing home a couple of small fish?