COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
F/V Safety
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Contact Us
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each month exclusively in the PRINT edition of CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 6
February 2008
Sector workshop informs diverse group
NARRAGANSETT, RI – The Jan. 15-16 workshop, “Sector Allocation as a Management Tool,” proved to be a success according to attendees and organizers.
Held at the Village Inn Resort on Narragansett Bay, the regional workshop drew approximately 130 people, including a number of fishermen from Rhode Island, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and New Jersey.
“We were pleased with the wide range of affiliations that were represented,” said Peg Parker, workshop coordinator and environmental research and policy consultant for Rhode Island Sea Grant, which, along with other Sea Grant programs, sponsored the event.
Parker called it “very encouraging” to see representatives from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), fishermen’s associations, environmental organizations, academic institutions, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and the New England Fishery Management Council coming together “to learn from each other and discuss this particular management approach and the issues and concerns involved.”
Chris Brown, president of the Rhode Island Commercial Fishermen’s Association, started off the workshop by putting the existing groundfish management system in perspective.
“We are currently in a train wreck,” he said, noting that the system has resulted in large amounts of discards and business inefficiencies.
“How did we get here? Where are we now? And where are we going?” he asked. “In order to effectively manage our fisheries in the future it will be necessary to determine the specific unfavorable human responses to regulations of the past, consider their source, and avoid empowering them in the future. We need a new approach.”
Policy, economics
Mark Holliday, director of the NMFS Office of Policy, explained the terminology and the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006.
Holliday said nothing in the act precluded regional councils from considering sectors as a management tool, although he noted that the question of whether sectors are limited-access privilege programs (LAPPs) and subject to referendum approval by permit holders has not yet been resolved. He added that councils need to define how sectors can be used to accomplish the goals of fishery management plans.
NMFS intends to issue policy guidelines on the implementation of sectors, Holliday said. However, that guidance has been delayed because of resource constraints within the agency, even though a year has gone by since the reauthorization act was signed into law.
Drew Kitts, a NMFS economist, provided an overview of the similarities and differences between sectors and different types of LAPPs, including: individual fishing quotas, or IFQs; community quotas; and quotas issued to regional fishing organizations.
He also summarized the major advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. For example, he noted that LAPPs reduce regulatory complexities while creating economic and conservation incentives. At the same time, they force allocation issues and increase catch monitoring costs.
Kitts also noted that community quotas, quotas to regional fishery associations, and sectors all involve organizational costs, demand resources from NMFS to keep track of multiple plans, and force common-pool vessels into a de facto sector as more sectors form.
While there are currently two sectors in New England – the Georges Bank Cod Hook Sector and the Georges Bank Cod Fixed Gear Sector – plus an additional 17 that have been proposed for groundfish Amendment 16, the Mid-Atlantic has no sectors.
However, according to Jason Didden of the Mid-Atlantic council, the notion of creating sectors has come up for three fisheries – squid and mackerel, butterfish, and tilefish.
Mock sector
The Tuesday afternoon session included a mock allocation of quota to a group of fishermen in a workshop titled, “What does a sector look like?”
Parker explained that this basically turned into an informal session as participants were asked to play “musical chairs” in an effort to bring together people of different backgrounds and viewpoints into nine small groups.
Each group was asked to consider the sector option for a fishery that had these familiar problems: a small quota leading to “a race for fish;” market fluctuations resulting in low fish prices; and safety concerns.
“There was general agreement that there is no ‘silver bullet’ to solving the problems associated with the current approach to quota management,” Parker said of the session.
However, she added that there was a serious discussion of the pros and cons of the sector management choice.
Among the potential advantages identified were: industry being more involved in management; increased daily profits; decreased high-grading; more opportunities for self-policing and information sharing; reduction in safety-at-sea concerns as fishermen would have more choices about when to go to sea; opportunities for eco-labeling since the sector approach would lead to sustainable fishing practices; and better prices.
Among the potential disadvantages identified were: financial risks to participating fishermen who would have to fund start-up and administrative costs; fishermen being locked in to sectors; possible disadvantages for fishermen not in a sector but left in the common pool; poor data bases making it harder to make good decisions; difficulties in ensuring accountability and making allocation decisions; and challenges in figuring out how to allow new entrants into the fishery.
“The bottom line (is that) lots of issues and concerns need to be addressed in working out sectors,” Parker said. “These fall in the area of allocation, enforcement, multispecies approach, the adequacy of the data base to begin with, and building capacity among fishermen to organize and administer sectors.”
Other speakers
Among the other speakers at the workshop were the following.
New England council member and charter boat captain David Preble led a discussion on sector management considerations.
“A stringent licensing system in the recreational sector is needed to give us the data required to properly manage any sector program,” he said. “It is important that we be creative and put together a monitoring program that is practical.”
Kate Bonzon, a fisheries specialist from Environmental Defense, gave a talk on broadening the scope and assessing the potential for rights-based management in US fisheries.
“The race for fish is wasteful and dangerous,” she said, emphasizing that the solution is found in catch-share programs that reduce bycatch and allow stocks to recover.
“Successful programs increase revenues and thereby improve the quality of life for the fishing community as well as the environment,” she said.
Sally McGee of Environmental Defense and member of the New England council led a discussion with fishery consultant Dick Allen and fishermen Ted Platz and Joel Hovanesian on rights-based management.
“We ought to be allocating the fish stock, not just the catch,” said Allen.
Platz said, “Accountability and sustainability apply to all institutions. Those two words are the foundation to our success.”
Added Hovanesian, “We need to be pro-economic development.” He emphasized that environmental issues and sustainability were major parts of the economics of the future of the fisheries.
Rhode Island Sea Grant will publish a proceedings document on the workshop over the next few months. For more information, call Kathy Castro at (401) 874-5063 or e-mail her at <kcastro@uri.edu>. Or call Barbara Somers at (401) 874-2012 or e-mail her at <barbs@uri.edu>.
Sam Bari
Lorelei Stevens
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
