Pacific Fisheries Management Council Meets Next Week

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Johanna Thomas, EDF director of Pacific fisheries projects, 415.293.6069 or 510.703.8484
Jennifer Witherspoon, EDF California communications director, 415.293.6067 or 415.378.1985

(San Francisco – June 6, 2008)  The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) will meet next week in Foster City, California to consider adopting an Individual Fishing Quota (IFQ) system for groundfish that would help revitalize the fishing industry along the West Coast.  Such catch share programs have worked successfully around the world, including in the U.S., to revitalize fisheries. 

“The current management system produces winners and losers, but mostly losers,” said Johanna Thomas, director of fisheries projects for the Pacific Ocean program of the Environmental Defense Fund. “An IFQ program can raise all boats, making fishing more profitable for fishermen and processors while creating better incentives to conserve the fishery.” Thomas, who has more than twenty years experience working on conservation and fishery-related issues, held a telephone briefing for reporters Friday on the significance of next week’s decision. Also participating in the briefing were Shems Jud, EDF Fisheries Policy Coordinator and recreational fisherman and Dorothy Lowman, fisheries consultant with masters in marine fisheries management. 

Reporters can listen to a recorded version of the briefing here:

“The Council has an opportunity to incorporate management measures for harvesting Pacific groundfish that have worked well to recover fisheries in other regions,” said Thomas. 

“We see this IFQ program as a win for fishermen, processors and our communities,” said Ralph Brown, a second generation West Coast fisherman from Brookings, Oregon. “Fishermen are struggling because there is no flexibility and no choice in the current management program. Without an IFQ program, our future is bleak.”
“The problem is not the fishermen.  Fishermen have done everything that fishery managers have asked them to do.  With fisheries continuing to fail, perhaps we’ve been asking fishermen to do the wrong things?  Now is the time to reconsider the direction we’ve been taking with fishery management,” Thomas said. 

Declared a disaster in 2000, the West Coast groundfish fishery is in trouble and so are the local communities that depend on it.  Revenue from groundfish landings, widely sold in markets as snapper and sole, has declined by more than half during the last decade.  Many Pacific groundfish fishermen are operating in the red.  Plus, key groundfish species are now listed as overfished. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC), is charged with managing the fishery, and will vote on a new management plan June 12.

West Coast landings of rockfish or groundfish plunged by 70 percent during the last two decades, from an average of 74,000 tons in the 1980s to 22,214 tons in 2007. Revenues from the groundfish fell by more than half from 1997 to 2007, from $47.3 million to $22.2 million. In 2000, the U.S. Department of Commerce declared the fishery a disaster, due to major declines in nine of 82 species of groundfish. Today, the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which governs West Coast fishing, lists seven species of rockfish as overfished.

Thomas said historically, fishery management councils have responded to crisis through measures such as shorter fishing seasons and smaller daily limits. Instead of reducing the catch as intended, such regulations set up a “race for fish.” The consequence has been dangerous fishing conditions, larger investments in boats and gear, a market glut and associated environmental damage.

Many fishermen are struggling to hold on, and if they determine that they are unable to continue fishing they must exit the business with just a boat and a permit as collateral for any outstanding debts they may owe.  Under an IFQ program however, a fisherman will at least have his quota as a valuable asset to sell, which provides a far greater safeguard against true “losers” than exists in the current system.  In addition, it is precisely that same transferability and flexibility that will allow new entrants to come into the business; a business under IFQs that will be worth investing in compared to the present situation.

Catch share programs are not new.  In 1997, British Columbia launched a catch share program for their groundfish fleet. This program gave each boat a guaranteed “share” of the allowable rockfish catch for the year based on a combination of each vessel’s catch history and size.  The guarantee allowed fishermen to fish at their own pace. Since they could fish when prices were best, they could make a higher profit on fewer fish.
In 1996, 29,000 tons of groundfish were landed in British Columbia with revenues worth $21 million. In 2000, 26,000 tons of groundfish – 10 percent less than in 1996 – yielded more than a 60 percent increase in revenue, $34 million. And the program required a scientific observer to be aboard the boat, which provided better data about the health of the fishery and served as a basis for better fishery management decisions.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council will consider a similar program on June 12 at the Foster City meeting.

“With the correct safeguards in place and tools for fishermen, Pacific groundfish can experience the same comeback as was experienced in British Columbia. Much depends on what opportunities and flexibility fishermen have to make the right choices about how much, and when, to fish,” said Brown. “Some industry groups, led by the dominant seafood processing companies such as Pacific Seafoods are spreading misinformation and unsupported statements to either undermine the adoption of an IFQ, or to ensure that they can continue to dominate fishermen and West Coast fishing.”
“A successful IFQ program recognizes that fishermen and processors need each other,” Thomas said.

For up to date information on Ocean issues, and specifically Catch Shares, visit our Web site at http://edf.org/CatchShares

To listen to this briefing click the following link:
https://cc.readytalk.com/play?id=0oiabffo

For additional instructions on playback, click here:

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One of the world’s leading international nonprofit organizations, Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org) creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. To do so, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships. With more than 3 million members and offices in the United States, China, Mexico, Indonesia and the European Union, EDF’s scientists, economists, attorneys and policy experts are working in 28 countries to turn our solutions into action. Connect with us on Twitter @EnvDefenseFund