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Yesterday, NOAA released the draft national policy encouraging the use of catch shares, a fishery management tool that can help to end overfishing, and rebuild and sustain fisheries and fishing communities (See news story, Page 1).
The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration received extensive input on the draft from the NOAA Catch Share Task Force, which included representatives from each of the eight regional fishery management councils in addition to NOAA and its National Marine Fisheries Service staff.
I encourage you to read the draft and comment on it. You can find the draft policy and a link to submit comments by going to our catch share Web site at http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/catchshares. The comment period ends April 10.
Catch share programs, which include individual fishing quotas and limited access privilege programs, have operated successfully in the United States since 1990.
There are 13 different programs today operating from Alaska to Florida. One of four new catch share programs expected to start in the next year is the sector program in the northeast groundfishery.
The fishing industry in Gloucester and other ports in the Northeast is working with the New England Fishery Management Council and NOAA on this program.
NOAA is strongly committed to the success of sector management in the Northeast groundfishery and has committed $16.7 million this year to help the industry move to sectors. This money is to assist with the monitoring of data needed to enforce catch shares, start-up costs for sectors and cooperative research on fisheries.
In a catch share program, the scientifically-based annual catch limit, is divided among individual fishermen or groups according to rules set by the regional fishery management councils. Fishermen catch their share and stop for the year when it is exhausted.
Catch share programs help eliminate overfishing to rebuild sustainable fish stocks. Under traditional fishery management, fishermen compete for a total allowable catch.
This has lead to fishermen racing each other to catch as many fish as they can before the catch limit is reached. It has also resulted in more boats and gear then necessary or economical, quotas being exceeded, increasingly shorter fishing seasons, unsafe fishing and high levels of bycatch. This type of management system can also result in too many fish being brought to market at once, which depresses the value of fish for fishermen and coastal communities.
Catch share programs have allowed fishermen to plan their businesses to take advantage of good weather, markets and other business considerations and be more selective about when and how they catch their allotment, because their share is secure. Fishermen gain a stronger incentive to rebuild the stock. As a fish stock rebuilds, a catch share becomes more valuable.
Under sector management, fishing permit-holders elect to join together to form a sector. They collectively fish a catch share allocated to the group. Groundfish permit holders who do not join a sector may continue to fish using their allowable days-at-sea under possession limits for what is called the common pool.
More than half the vessels in the groundfishery have joined sectors; these groundfish permit owners represent more than 90 percent of the historic catch in the fleet. With or without sectors, there will continue to be short-term economic effects that come from constraints on fishing required to rebuild the groundfish stocks.
We have made significant progress on this, but some 60 percent of the groundfish stocks are still being fished at an unsustainable rate and their population is below a sustainable level.
The long-term goal is to fully rebuild groundfish stocks so that fishermen will be able to land three times as many fish sustainably as they are currently landing. The New England Council has decided that sector management is the way to reach that goal.
We have many examples of catch share programs that work to sustain the fish stocks for the long-term and help provide fishing communities with stable jobs on the waterfront and in other seafood businesses.
The halibut Individual Fishing Quota program in Alaska, now more than a decade old, reduced the number of fishing vessels in what had become a dangerous derby fishery with a fishing season lasting less than a week every year.
The catch share program allows for a longer, more profitable and much safer fishing season that has helped sustain communities and jobs. A 2-year-old catch share program in the Gulf of Mexico is helping rebuild Gulf of Mexico red snapper. It also reduced the number of vessels in the fishery to align better with the amount of fish that could be fished.
This last week, our scientists announced that we expect to end overfishing of Gulf of Mexico red snapper this year after more than two decades of overfishing. This is not all due to the catch share program, but it has helped. As yet, catch shares have not been instituted in recreational fisheries.
The draft policy encourages fishery management councils to design catch share programs that promote sustained participation by communities in fishing and minimize adverse economic and social effects.
Catch share programs across the country have been designed to limit the amount of shares one vessel owner can hold, to maintain diverse fleets of both small and large vessels and to provide ways for young people to enter the fishery.
While this policy encourages the careful consideration of catch shares, it cannot mandate catch shares in any fishery and there are fisheries where catch shares may not be the best option.
Catch shares are one tool among several, not a panacea. I encourage you to take a look at the draft policy, share it with others and give comments.
I welcome your comments on the column. Send any comments to me at public.concerns.groundfish@noaa.gov.
Jim Balsiger is acting assistant administrator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Fisheries Service.
