NOAA announced a new commercial fisheries policy: Catch shares for everyone. The idea is to relieve the pressure they’re currently under to catch more fish faster, which many current fishery management plans inadvertently reward.
Proponents of catch share programs, including Environmental Defense Fund, say they reduce overfishing, improve fishermen’s safety and profits, and reduce the negative environmental and economic effects of the race for fish.
The catch share idea isn’t new – there are 14 U.S. fisheries being managed this way already – but building a national policy around it is. NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco has been paying lip service to the idea for awhile now, as the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery gets its catch-share program underway.
Read the complete piece from Ecotrope.