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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 6
February 2007
NESC details groundfish Point System idea
The “Point System” is a comprehensive output-control management proposal for the Northeast multispecies fishery that the Northeast Seafood Coalition is proposing to replace the current days-at-sea input-control system.
The coalition developed the system in response to the New England Fishery Management Council’s request for new and innovative management strategies for Amendment 16 to the federal groundfish plan.
The Point System is intended to serve two fundamental purposes:
• To provide a fair and equitable mechanism for converting days-at-sea allocations, vessel baselines, and catch histories into a common currency unit (points) that fishermen can “spend” on fish; and
• To provide an effective management tool to achieve the full range of the council’s biological and socio-economic objectives.
Under this program, managers would assign each of the multispecies stocks a unique biological point value (BPV) at the beginning of each fishing year, which would be subject to periodic adjustments throughout the year. Vulnerable stocks would have relatively high BPVs while healthier stocks would have lower BPVs. That means a fisherman will have to spend more of his points to catch higher BPV stocks than to catch lower BPV stocks.
Managers also would assign each fisherman a specific quantity of points based on their vessel characteristics, days-at-sea allocations, and catch history (see formula below).
Like a bank account, the fisherman could “spend” these points on whatever stocks he chooses. The system would be very flexible in that it would provide each fisherman with the discretion to use his points in different ways at different times of the fishing year.
The system can be described as “pay as you play.” Each fisherman would be held to the highest level of individual accountability through real-time balancing of the vessel’s points “bank account.”
The Point System would greatly simplify the current management system by doing away with many of the input controls specifically designed to reduce fishermen’s efficiency. It also would drastically reduce regulatory discards through the elimination of daily and trip possession limits.
What follows are questions and answers intended to help explain in general terms how the Point System would work. More specific details of the idea can be found in the full proposal, which is freely available from the Northeast Seafood Coalition.
Q: How would individual point allocations be calculated?
A: The primary factor used to determine point allocations would be the permitted vessel’s baseline characteristics.
The formula would look like this: [(vessel length x 28) + (horsepower x 2.8)] x (A+B) days-at-sea = baseline points. A “catch history bonus multiplier” would then be applied to baseline points (see full proposal for details).
Q: How would catch history be determined?
A: Total landings in pounds and total revenues from groundfish would be added up for each of the eight fishing years 1996-2003.
Q: Why is 2003 proposed as the terminal year for evaluating catch history?
A: The phrase “terminal year” means the last year of a baseline period usually used to determine permit eligibility or catch share. The last full fishing year before days-at-sea leasing was 2003. Prior to fishing year 2004, all permit holders were restricted to fishing with their own days-at-sea allocations, so this year should provide a more stable and equitable period for each permit in the fishery.
Q: Are points species-specific?
A: No. These are multispecies points that can be used on any stock in the complex. The value of the points will depend upon the BPVs associated with each stock upon landing.
Q: How does the Point System consider the substantial investments in permits?
A: Unlike systems that use catch history or areas as the primary method of determining a fisherman’s allocation, the Point System is specifically designed to convert vessel length, horsepower, and days-at-sea directly into points. In this way, all of a fisherman’s investment in permits with A-days will be translated into reasonable allocations and values in the Point System.
Q: Will the Point System be complicated for fishermen to work with?
A: No. It should be extremely simple for a fisherman or sector to operate in the Point System. All a permit holder needs to know is the current BPV for all stocks and his or her current point balance.
A fisherman can then go to work and pay as he plays. A fisherman will land what he catches and the “cost” of his catch will be paid for with points.
Q: Can points be carried over from year to year?
A: Yes. The Point System proposal recommends that up to 10% of a fisherman’s point balance can be carried over from one fishing year to the next.
Q: What options are available to a permit holder who, for one reason or another, does not fish at all or does not use much of his or her allocation during a fishing year?
A: A permit holder would have three options: lease points to other permit holders; carry over up to 10% to thenext fishing year; or deposit some or all of his allocation into his Points Conservation Account (see proposal for details).
Q: Are there vessel size restrictions on leasing points between vessels?
A: No. Because all permits and allocations are converted to a common currency, points are conservation neutral so they can be obtained from any vessel with an allocation of points.
Q: Will this system cause a derby mentality in the fishery by creating a perception that it is best to fish early in the season to avoid increases in BPVs?
A: The method for setting the initial BPVs can accommodate a policy that creates a neutral risk to both a derby and a reverse-derby mentality.
Q: How will managers set the initial BPVs?
A: A balanced approach would be to set initial BPVs at a neutral risk level and then use in-season adjustments to control catch as necessary. Setting initial BPVs unnecessarily high will cause many fishermen to wait for the inevitable lowering of BPVs later in the year, while setting BPVs too low will cause a race to fish.
Q: Does this system rely upon the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to continuously adjust BPVs to control catch to the target levels?
A: No. A computer model will be developed that will make periodic and automatic adjustments to BPVs in response to stock-specific catch trajectories, remaining fleet points, and seasonal trends.
Q: Who will develop the BPV adjustment computer model?
A: The Northeast Seafood Coalition, in coordination with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology and the Massachusetts Fisheries Institute and outsourced computer modelers, have offered to develop the model for submission to the council for review and analysis.
Q: Can the Point System reliably control catch to within annual catch limits?
A: Yes. This mathematically based system will match a finite number of fleet points to total allowable catch figures (adjusted for recreational catch and discard of undersized fish).
Q: Can the Point System improve our ability to achieve optimum yield (OY) on all stocks?
A: The Point System offers the opportunity to harvest OY and is limited only by the fleet’s catch selectivity capabilities.
Q: Is the Point System an improvement over the current system for gillnet vessels?
A: The Point System treats all gear types equally. This full retention, “pay-as-you-play” concept will allow gillnetters to use the amount of gear and soak times they feel is appropriate without the negative consequence of lost days-at-sea due to unpredictable catch rates.
Q: Is the Point System an Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ)?
A: No. Federal law explicitly defines an IFQ as “a federal permit under a limited-access system to harvest (a percentage of the TAC of a particular stock) that may be received or held for exclusive use by a person.”
The Point System does not allocate a quantity of fish or a percentage of any TAC. Similar to the current days-at-sea system, access to the fishery depends entirely on how a permit holder chooses to use his allocation.
Q: What are some key advantages of the Point System compared to an IFQ program?
A: The Point System accounts for the unpredictability of the catch mix. Unlike quota-balancing systems in IFQs, leasing points is simple since points are not species specific.
Q: How will enforcement personnel be able to make sure that offloading and proper recording of all species landed is occurring?
A: Before unloading, a vessel will have to: declare a hail of all species prior to crossing the demarcation line; identify the unloading station; arrive at the unloading station; request to unload at a computer terminal with a PIN #; and wait for confirmation before offloading can begin.
Q: How would this system work with sector management?
A: The Point System would work well with the sector concept either as point sectors or sectors that accept hard TACs on all stocks.
Q: How does the Point System interact with the federal monkfish plan and other plans?
A: Stocks managed under other fishery management plans will continue to follow the measures prescribed by those plans (see full proposal for details).
Q: Does the Point System rely upon closures to restrict catch?
A: No. Except for spawning and habitat protection, rolling and permanent closures will no longer be necessary.
Q: Will there be trip limits under the Point System?
A: No. Trip limits are the primary cause of regulatory discards.
The Northeast Seafood Coalition invites all those with further questions or interests to contact the coalition office at (978) 283-9992. The full proposal is also available on the coalition web site at <www.northeastseafoodcoalition.org>.
Vito Giacalone
Vito Giacalone is chairman of governmental affairs for the Northeast Seafood Coalition, which represents fishermen, shoreside businesses, and municipalities from Maine to New York.
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