Dave Pickering, who has landed more than 50,000 striped bass from shore, will be one of the guest speakers at the East Bay Anglers’ Fishing Expo scheduled for Sunday, January 30, 2011. The event will take place at Barrington High School starting at 11:00 a.m. For information visit www.rifishshow.com.
Early last month the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service issued a press release announcing a new NOAA policy that encourages the consideration and use of catch shares as a fishery management tool.
Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator said, “NOAA’s policy encourages fishery management councils and stakeholders to explore the design possibilities of catch shares to tailor programs to best meet local needs.” The announcement was met with praise and criticism from the recreational angling community.
What are catch shares?
I have seen a number of definitions… what catch shares use to mean versus what it commonly means today. This week, I checked NOAA’s definition in their recent press release and Wikipedia’s definition.
According to Wikipedia, “The term ‘Catch Share’ has been used more recently to describe the range of programs similar to ITQs (individual transferable quotas). Catch shares expand the concept of daily catch limits to yearlong limits, allow different fishers to have different limits based on various factors, and also limits the total catch. Under catch share approaches, threatened fisheries became sustainable by keeping the totals low enough and enforcing the limits.”
NOAA relates that catch share programs, which include limited access privilege programs and individual fishing quotas, dedicate a secure share of fish to individual fishermen, cooperatives or fishing communities. Catch shares are used in 14 fisheries managed by six fishery management councils from Alaska to Florida and are being developed in additional fisheries. Both here and in other countries, catch shares are helping eliminate overfishing and achieve annual catch limits, improve fishermen’s safety and profits, and reduce the negative biological and economic effects of the race for fish that develops with some traditional fishery management.
Wikipedia relates that, “… a crucial element of catch share systems is how to distribute/allocate the shares and what rights come with them. The initial allocation can be granted or auctioned. Shares can be held permanently (owned) or for a fixed period such as one year (rented). They can be salable and/or leasable or not, with or without limits. Each variation has advantages and disadvantages, which may vary given the culture of a given fishing community.”
The Center for Coastal Conservation (CCC), a coalition of leading advocates for marine, recreation fishing and boating supports many aspects of the new NOAA catch share policy. CCC members include the American Sportfishing Association, The Billfish Foundation, Coastal Conservation Association, International Game Fish Association and the National Marine Manufacturers Association.
In a CCC press release Mike Nussman, president and CEO of the American Sportfishing Association, said, “It’s clear that NOAA’s leadership was listening at its Recreational Fishing Summit last April when the entire spectrum of the recreational angling community, form guides to tackle manufactures to charter boat operators, voiced its apprehension regarding this policy… A number of significant improvements called for by participants at the summit and in subsequent dialogue with the agency are reflected in this document.”
The recreational fishing community feared catch shares would be applied to individual private recreational anglers. In a recent ESPNOutdoors.com article by Robert Montgomery, Jeff Angers, president of the Center for Coastal Conservation, said, "Our No. 1 victory seems to be that the new policy says that Catch Shares has no place in recreational only fisheries,"
In their recent release NOAA sated, “The policy does not advocate individual catch shares for private recreational anglers. Councils will have NOAA support to consider catch share programs for charter boat and head (party) boat sectors to explore recreational catch share programs that could benefit the health of the resource and the charter industry.”
NOAA took public comment and input into consideration in some important guiding principles to the policy including a recommendation that regional fishery management councils periodically revisit allocations (particularly between the commercial and recreational sectors). The fear was that catch shares would underestimate the benefit and economic impact that the recreational industry has vs. the commercial fishery, establish fixed and unchangeable allocations and have anglers chasing an ever decreasing amount of fish in severely declining fisheries with no hope of reallocations.
The practice of changing sector allocations is not new. In fact in the 80’s and 90’s the striped bass fishery in Maryland was severely challenged by a declining and weakened striped bass fishery (just as most of the east coast was). So much so, that a total moratorium was applied as well as “a combination of closures, size changes, creel (bag) limits and quotas to reduce fishing mortality and promote spawning stock recovery.” said Harley Speir, former assistant director, Maryland Fisheries Service and former Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management council member.
Spear said,”…in the early 1990’s (they) separated the recreational fishing sector into charter boat and private recreational sectors as we reopened the striped bass fishery. The sectors would have separate harvest quotas and different seasons and creel limits. …We managed the two sectors for five full seasons before merging the two again.”
When coming out of moratorium private recreational anglers and recreational anglers fishing on for-hire charter boats had different allocations to help bolster the charter fishing industry. Once the striped bass fishery rebounded, allocations were revisited and changed allowing both private recreational anglers and recreational anglers fishing on charter boats a two fish/person/day limit (similar to what exists in Rhode Island today). The sector separation and reallocations were a success for private recreational anglers, the charter fishing industry and the striped bass fishery which rebounded to sustainable levels.
One group that has consistently been opposed to catch shares is the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). "We've fought too hard and for too long to keep this Catch Shares policy out of our sector. We cannot let NOAA continue to ramrod this policy through (regional fishery management) councils in direct contradiction to the wishes of our fishing community," said Jim Donofrio, executive director, in the recent ESPN.com story.
The idea of catch shares as outlined by NOAA in their new policy seems to be a good management tool for some of the challenges our fisheries face. So far, the case studies I have read lead me to believe that catch shares work with controls customized for specific management areas. It promotes conservation, responsible harvesting and yet allows fishing businesses to be run more efficiently and effectively. It fosters a sense of community between participating fishermen. It is proven to allow fishing communities to flourish rather than die a slow death as we have all witnessed with many past and present policies.
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