The Pew Environmental Group has issued a white paper which they describe as a discussion of catch shares: examining the tool and its possibilities, investigating how to maximize its effectiveness and exploring the role that catch shares can play in fishery conservation.
The paper was released in conjunction with a media teleconference held at noon on Tuesday November 4th. The audio is available from the Pew Environment Group’s website www.EndOverfishing.org.
At the start of the briefing, Lee Crockett, director of Federal Fisheries Policy at the Pew Environment Group, and moderator of the teleconference made clear that the Pew Environmental Group has "not yet communicated its thinking on [catch share] programs"
He stated that Pew does "not support making catch shares the default management system in every sector of every fishery in the United States." And he expressed concern that "this one-size-fits-all philosophy is inappropriate and ultimately harmful to sound fisheries management because it ignores local variability."
He stated that "whether or not these programs work depends on how they are designed and implemented."
Later in the briefing, Mr. Crockett expressed concerns about positions in the document "Oceans of Abundance" produced by the Environmental Defense Fund with the World Wildlife Fund and the Marine Conservation Biology Institute. Dr. Lubchenco signed onto this paper before she became head of NOAA. He stated that the paper advocated that catch shares should be the nation’s default management system for fisheries, and although Dr. Lubchenco has backed away from some of those positions, Pew remained concerned and wanted to make clear that "whether or not to go to a catch share policy should be an organic process that begins at the local level, at the council level, rather than being imposed as the national policy."
Expanding upon these concerns, Zeke Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, expressed concern about any mandate that catch shares have to be considered for every fishery. He said his group would be looking to the White House for standards that avoid "the quasi-privatization of resources", "excessive consolidation" and protection for "local fishing communities and the diversity of their fleets."
Responding to a question by the Gloucester Times’ Richard Gaines, Mr. Grader stated that his suggestion that "free market ideologues run the show" was directed at the catch share efforts of the Environmental Defense Fund. The Environmental Defense Fund has issued a response to the Pew paper.
Read the white paper "Design Matters: Making Catch Shares Work".
Listen to the audio of the press briefing.
Description of the media briefing.
Read the Environmental Defense Fund’s response to the Pew white paper.