January 11, 2012 — I'm a commercial fisherman who fishes out of Half Moon Bay for groundfish, the many species of cod, sole and rockfish that are mainly caught using trawl nets. This week, my fellow groundfish fishermen and I marked an important anniversary. We have been fishing for one full year under a new fishery management program known as "catch shares."
The program assigns to fishermen an annual, percentage-based quota of each groundfish species' total allowable catch, which we are then able to fish for at any time during the yearlong fishing season. Our individual percentage of the total allowable catch is what makes up our "share." In effect, catch shares give us — for the first time — a true stewardship role to play in our fishery. We no longer are invested only in our boats and equipment, but in the sustainability of the resource that we depend on for our livelihoods.
Under the old system, fishermen had little or no incentive to avoid overfished species or to behave like the natural conservationists that we are. On the contrary. The old regulations actually forced us to throw 20 to 30 percent of our perfectly good fish, known as "bycatch," overboard — dead. Every fisherman I know absolutely hated doing this. But in the first full year of our catch share program, which many fishermen helped develop, the bycatch discard rate has dropped to just 1 percent. We feel very good about that.
With the new system, every trawler now carries an observer who gathers catch data and ensures that we are 100 percent accountable.
Read the complete opinion piece from Mercury News