The Obama administration Thursday formalized its commitment to a national "catch share policy" — a system already drawing fire from fishermen, and one which NOAA's chief administrator has said will bring a significant new reduction in the size of the fleet.
"I'm really encouraged by this new policy because it's about supporting regionally designed solutions for fisheries," said Amanda Leland, EDF's national oceans policy director. "The policy focuses on providing the technical support and policy guidance needed to make catch shares successful for those who wish to pursue catch shares."
Other environmental non-government organization see catch shares as a powerful destructive force.
"Such programs have done little to encourage sustainable fishing practices or stop fish populations from becoming depleted and in some cases have actually worsened these programs," wrote Food and Water Watch in a global study released in September. "Smaller historic fishermen are continually being forced out of fishing, and wages have plummeted for those able to find work.
"There has been a notable lack of analysis of the impacts of catch share programs on communities and a lack of effort to integrate fair transition policies to help communities handle fallout from some of these programs when capacity becomes consolidated," said Megan Mackey, a fishing policy associate at Ecotrust, a West Coast environmental group that studied catch shares in British Columbia and across the United States.
Last month, Schwaab's announcement of NOAA intentions to expand catch shares into the recreational sector drew howls.
"Mr. Schwaab has disregarded congressional testimony from real anglers and commercial fishermen who are opposed to any type of privatization scheme," said Jim Hutchinson, managing director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance.
"When you read this release and see how Mr. Schwaab is promoting catch shares through a $2.2 million funding initiative supported by Wal-Mart and Intel Corporation," he said, "it's hard to think how anyone in our recreational fishing industry can be anything other than outraged at this announcement."
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Daily Times.