Sharing the Catch – and Saving the Fish

Some breaking news from our guest blogger Debbie Salamone of the Pew Campaign to End Overfishing in the Southeast: 

There may be a new catch to the way millions of fishermen are allowed to catch fish.

A proposed policy issued yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says regional fishery managers should consider dividing annual amounts of allowable catch among individual fishermen and groups of fishermen – a tool called catch shares.

 It’s a different way of doing business. Right now, managers mostly set annual limits on the total amount of fish that can be caught. Catch shares give a limited number of fishermen exclusive access to a certain amount of that fish under the theory that they will have an economic incentive to conserve the resource. The more fish in the ocean, the more fish they’ll get to reel in. Several catch share programs already exist in the United States and have worked well when designed properly.

While NOAA did not mandate the use of the programs, its endorsement raises the profile of the programs and likely will put them on the front burner in discussions across the country about how to end overfishing.

And NOAA is putting its money where its mouth is. The agency says it plans to give the programs a priority in its already tight budget. However, we need to be vigilant to ensure this prioritization does not lead to cuts in other important programs necessary to sustainably manage our fish.

The proposed policy is the culmination of months of work by a government task force charged with examining the programs. The public will have a chance to comment on the policy until April 10, 2010. NOAA will consider the input and then issue a final policy after that. You can view the policy and submit comments here

Expect controversy over the programs to intensify.

Some recreational fishermen think they could be shut out of some fishing opportunities. Critics contend catch shares can result in consolidation of fishing fleets to the detriment of smaller traditional fishing communities. The programs also can contribute to other environmental problems. For example, if fishermen are allowed 100 fish, they might be more choosy about which ones they keep. That means they may throw smaller, less valuable, fish back into the water and for some species, the survival rate isn’t good.

Some lawsuits over the programs already are working through the courts.

The bottom line: NOAA has wisely recognized that catch shares are not a one-size-fits-all solution. NOAA left regional managers to figure out what works best in their regions. The programs need careful design, fair and equitable quotas and scientifically sound limits on the total numbers of fish caught annually.

Catch shares will catch on best only if they are done right.

You can read Pew’s paper on catch shares here