Management & Regulation

The Environmental Defense Fund has been promoting catch shares as a solution and has studied the over 300 catch share systems in the US and other countries. One of the most common concerns is that catch shares end overfishing at the cost of community values. In New England, “sector’’ catch shares were specifically designed to support small fishing fleets. Additional policies are used elsewhere – that we should adopt here – that further protect smaller ports and small-scale fishermen.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

The chairman of the council that advises federal managers on New England fishing regulations has called for a review of the rule-making bureaucracy, calling it “antiquated and ineffective.’’ John Pappalardo of the New England Fishery Management Council made the comment in a letter to US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

 

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Scallop industry wants limit to be eased

More than 1,000 members of the East Coast scallop industry have asked the nation’s chief fisheries regulator to restore 6 million pounds to the recent cut in the scallop catch. The industry called the cuts “rapid and unnecessary’’ in a letter delivered Saturday to Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Read the complete stories from the AP at The Boston Globe.

Fishermen were faced with a Hobbesian Choice [sic]: join a sector, with little knowledge of how that system might work, in theory or practice, or go it alone in the common pool, with a steep reduction in their days at sea and other restrictions and which will, in three years, also be subject to a total allowable catch (TAC) or quota.

But this brave new world of fisheries management in New England comes with a terrible dilemma for community-based groups fighting to maintain their access to the gulf's fishery resources. On the one hand, sectors are a tool that may allow community-based fleets to stay in the game if enough fish are conserved to rebuild local stocks. But experience from every other fishing region in the world demonstrates that since quota allocations can be bought and sold, TACs result in at least a 25 percent consolidation in the number of boats in a quota-based fishery. It should be no surprise that smaller community-based vessels are those disproportionately squeezed out of a fishery.

Read the complete story at The Working Waterfront.

Catch share programs result in more consistent and predictable fisheries but do not necessarily improve ecological conditions, according to a new study published online this week by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Employed by nations around the world, catch shares – a management system that divides up and allocates percentages, or shares, of the total allowable catch to individual fishermen or fishing groups – have generated controversy as to whether they lead to better environmental stewardship than other fishery management options. The study, funded by the Lenfest Ocean Program, concludes that these programs help to eliminate erratic swings in fishing rates, catch landings and fish population sizes, among other factors, but may not necessarily lead to larger fish populations. This research is the most in-depth and comprehensive study of the ecological impacts of catch share programs in North America.

Publication of this research coincides with the public-comment period for the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) draft catch share policy, which evaluates catch share programs under the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the nation’s primary fisheries law. NOAA’s draft policy “encourages the consideration and adoption of catch shares wherever appropriate in fishery management and ecosystem plans and amendments and will support the design, implementation, and monitoring of catch share programs.

Read the complete story from The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The chairman of the council that advises federal managers on New England fishing regulations has called for a review of the rulemaking bureaucracy, calling it "antiquated and ineffective."

John Pappalardo of the New England Fishery Management Council made the request in a letter to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke. The council works with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Northeast Science Center to devise fishing rules.

But Pappalardo wrote the three entities can’t efficiently meet the expanded requirements of the nation’s recently reauthorized fisheries law, the Magnuson Stevens Act. He also said the bureaucracy is driven by "process and protocol," not outcomes.

Read the complete story at The Boston Herald.

More than 1,000 members of the East Coast scallop industry have asked the nation's chief fisheries regulator to restore 6 million pounds to the recent cut in the scallop catch.

The industry called the cuts "rapid and unnecessary" in a letter delivered Saturday to NOAA head Jane Lubchenco.

The booming scallop industry has made New Bedford the nation's highest revenue port. But in November, regulators cut annual fishing days for scallopers from 37 to 29, which lowered the projected catch by 11 million pounds. The move to protect stocks came after scallopers overshot last year's projected catch.

Read the complete story by the AP at Google.

    John Pappalardo, Chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council, has written to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke requesting an independent and comprehensive systems analysis and efficiency review of the Northeast Regional Office of the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Northeast Science Center, and the New England Fishery Management Council, both individually and collectively.

    It is anticipated that other organizations and individuals will sign onto the letter in the coming weeks.

    In his letter, Mr. Pappalardo writes "the changes outlined in the reauthorized Magnuson Stevens Act have placed additional demands on each of these three entities, and it has become clear that our region’s bureaucracy is unable to efficiently meet its expanded obligations."

    He asks the Commerce Secretary for "help in implementing a visionary pilot in New England that is a necessary first step in making these critical improvements."

    He cites as one important area to be addressed "the communication and coordination among these institutions."  Noting that "the leaders of each entity have repeatedly acknowledged significant challenges with inter-organizational communication, but these challenges appear to be increasing rather than improving.

He also observes that "our bureaucracy is often driven by process and protocol rather than by mission and outcome."

    Over the last two decades, great strides have been made in our understanding of the design and realignment of public agency infrastructure to foster innovative, adaptive and effective management. In light of these advances, it is time to evaluate our current system, identify inefficiencies, and implement appropriate solutions.

He asks that the review be conducted by a management consultant, and include:

•    Extensive interviews with leadership and staff of each organization as well as a wide range of fishery stakeholders to understand their respective views on the performance of the current system and their suggestions for reforms.

•    An objective and thorough evaluation of the internal structure and management practices of each entity.

•    A rigorous assessment of the coordination and communication among the three entities and specific suggestions for necessary improvements.

•    A detailed and public summary of the findings of this initiative as well as the resulting recommendations.

Noting that Congress recently approved the Fiscal Year 2010 budget including a line item of $191 million dollars for Fisheries Management, he asks that his request be funded using those funds.

The letter was also delivered to Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Margaret Spring, Patricia Kurkul, Dr. Nancy Thompson, and Paul Howard.

Read the complete letter.

When explaining how politics work, Chris Matthews on TV quoted the American satirist, H.L. Mencken, "Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced."

We are trying to convince NOAA/NMFS regulators that there are plenty of fish swimming in the ocean and they should leave us alone and let us work. But their work, indeed their very professional existence, depends on the "overfishing crisis" raging.

Without an "overfishing crisis" they could all go home. No "overfishing crisis," then there's no "stopping the overfishing crisis" industry.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

In a year of mounting physical and written protests against national fisheries policies, the latest could be the loudest — at least in the size of the protesting chorus.

No less than 1,000 scallop fishermen, retail and wholesale seafood dealers and other scallop-dependent businesses and their employees signed a letter hand-delivered Friday to the office of Jane Lubchenco, the Obama administration's steward of the oceans.

The point of the protest was the decision of the New England Fishery Management Council last month to cut back access to the scallop grounds despite the stock's undisputed health.

"The action fails to balance the conservation of scallop stocks with the economic and social health of the industry," Herman Bruce and Malvin Kvilahaug, writing on behalf of the Fisheries Survival Fund, said in their letter, "and it will cause unnecessary damage to fishing communities from Maine to North Carolina, as well as local, regional and national economies, more generally, at precisely the wrong time."

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

More than 1,000 members of the Atlantic sea scallop industry are petitioning the country's top fisheries regulator to increase the scallop harvest for the 2010 fishing season.

In a letter addressed to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Dr. Jane Lubchenco, the Fisheries Survival Fund, a Fairhaven-based advocacy group, expressed disapproval with new scallop catch limits passed in November by the New England Fishery Management Council.

The rules, which await approval by NOAA Fisheries Service, would cut nine fishing days and eliminate one closed area fishing trip during the 2010 scallop season, which begins March 1. Council staff have said catch limits are necessary to ensure that scallop stocks remain at sustainable levels and do not become subject to overfishing.

In the letter signed by Herman Bruce and Malvin Kvilhaug, the Fisheries Survival Fund argues that fishermen should be able to harvest an additional 6 million pounds of scallops, worth $40 million, without harming the resource.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.