Two months before the Environmental Defense Fund achieved a political policy triumph with the vote last week to transform the New England groundfishery from a commonly held resource into negotiable commodities, a bullish EDF executive was urging institutional investors to buy these catch shares.
EDF vice president David Festa’s projection was a 400 percent return on the investment, based on what he said was recent experiences with the imposition of catch shares in other fisheries.
A consultant to EDF spoke of returns of 10 or even 20 times investment.
"It’s not telecom money, but it’s real money," Festa advised a small but influential private audience of mutual and hedge fund managers and ENGO — or environmental non-government organization — officials at an April 28 panel on "Innovative Funding for Sustainable Fisheries and Oceans."