Ahab's Journal

Congressman Frank to NOAA chief: Many questions on catch shares

In a pointed letter to the Obama administration's top fisheries administrator, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank has added his voice to a growing chorus of concerns about the transition of the New England groundfishery to a "catch share" regulatory system.

He also expressed a number of related frustrations with federal fisheries management, including the death by old age of "tens of millions of dollars" of scallops in a overlooked, closed area of Georges Bank. 

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Pew's catch-share paper reiterates need to push back catch shares

For months, the Gloucester fishing community and industry leaders across New England and the nation have begged federal regulators to delay the implementation of a new regulatory structure that, by many counts, could throw the regional industry into chaos and drive many independent boat owners out of business.

Now, one of the biggest environmental lobbies in the nation is joining them — sort of.

This doesn't mean that the Pew Environmental Group is suddenly in sync with area fishing interests. The $5 billion philanthropy still believes in draconian restrictions on fishing, in the name of preserving the resource and fighting the effects of alleged and disputed "overfishing." The Big Green still supports "catch-shares," a system of fisheries management that divides the resource into saleable commodities, for the groundfishing industry in New England, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its National Marine Fisheries Service are moving toward implementing the system next year.

But the words from Lee Crocker, director of Pew's federal fisheries policy — outlined during a nationwide teleconference Tuesday and reported in yesterday's Times — took many by surprise. That's because Crocker urged the Obama administration — and that means NOAA chief and former Pew Fellow Jane Lubchenco — to "go slow" on catch shares, and not to make it "the default management system."

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Catch share slow-up hailed

A consumer group, Food & Water Watch, yesterday seconded the Pew Environment Group's motion that the Obama administration ease its ardor at commodifying public fisheries to achieve ecosystem restoration with investor principles.

And the latest action may have sparked a full-fledged national debate on the privatization of the oceans' resources.

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Request for Oversight Hearings on Catch Shares

Dear all,

Concerned about the implications of Catch Shares, we are sending the
letter below asking for congressional oversight hearings.  We want to
hear directly from Congress whether the current state of fisheries
management meets their intent when they set out to create the Magnuson
Stevens Act.

The letter below is directed to Senator Snowe because she chairs the
committee.  The letter was put together by NAMA and Food & Water
Watch.  Although it specifically talks about Maine, we are looking for
a cross section of fishermen, fishing groups and families as well as
individuals, fishing community businesses, scientists, etc. from all
over to sign on if they feel comfortable doing so.

Pew: Go slow on catch shares

Stand shows split between enviro groups

The Pew Environment Group yesterday urged the Obama administration to "go slow" on fishermen's catch shares, the economic system of fisheries management pushed by the Environmental Defense Fund and Jane Lubchenco, its former vice chairman, now the national administrator for fisheries.

"Do not make catch shares the default management system," said Lee Crockett, director of Pew's federal fisheries policy. "One size fits all is inappropriate and ignores local variability."

Pew made its pitch for a cautious, bottom-up approach to catch shares in a national teleconference.

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EDF's Kate Bonzon Responds to the Pew Catch Share Report

"Pew is right that these are tough problems for fisheries, but they neglect to mention that catch shares are better at achieving positive outcomes than nearly any other management approach currently in use."

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The Pew Environment Group's Catch Share White Paper: "Design Matters"

At the start of the briefing,  Lee Crockett, director of Federal Fisheries Policy at the Pew Environment Group, and moderator of the teleconference made clear that the Pew Environmental Group has "not yet communicated its thinking on [catch share] programs"

He stated that Pew does "not support making catch shares the default management system in every sector of every fishery in the United States."  And he expressed concern that "this one-size-fits-all philosophy is inappropriate and ultimately harmful to sound fisheries management because it ignores local variability."

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Fish share proposal rankles activists

SM PIER — A few feet from the Santa Monica Pier's iconic sports fishing sign, a group of environmentalists engaged in a symbolic game of tug-of-war, pitting small fishermen against corporate giants in what has become a bitterly divisive debate over how best to manage seafood supplies.

The activists with Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group, are trying to draw attention to a new management plan intended to protect endangered fish species by limiting the number that can be caught during a given season, dividing that number into "fish shares" or "catch shares" which are then distributed like stocks to fishermen, cooperatives or communities who could then buy, sell or lease their shares.

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Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council Forming King Mackerel LAPP Panel

The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council is forming a new Ad Hoc Advisory Panel to consider the trading of catch shares and other issues related to limited access privilege programs for Gulf king mackerel.

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Fishery council pushes to continue rockfish pilot program

Federal fisheries officials are considering making permanent a controversial rockfish pilot program that essentially privatizes that fishery in the central Gulf of Alaska.

The final program likely would exclude the divisive requirement that deliveries must be made to specific processors, federal officials said.

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Fishing rules lawsuit in works

A nonprofit corporation formed by Rhode Island fishermen is working with a major Boston law firm on a legal and constitutional challenge to the recently voted federal groundfish management plan that would transform the commonly held resources of the sea into privately held fishermen's catch shares.

Catch shares have become a bitterly divisive issue nationally, pushed hard by the Obama administration and many major environmental organizations, but resisted by many fishermen and at least one consumer group.

Tina Jackson, a Point Judith, R.I., fisherman and the president of the newly created American Alliance of Fishermen and their Communities, yesterday identified the firm formulating the Amendment 16 challenge as Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge.

Read "Fishing rules lawsuit in works"

Anti-catch share group stifled at NH fishery forum

Last week's two-day seminar on the dynamic potential in transforming the commonly owned resources of the sea into private, tradeable catch shares produced many concerns and worries.

But only one voice was heard against the transformation already underway in New England — and that voice was muted and constrained at that.

Food & Water Watch was the conference contrarian. A Washington-based, non-profit, consumer group, Food & Water Watch has staked out a lonely position in unequivocal opposition to privatizing common wealth and the creation of a limited-access commodities market in fisheries. That's the expressed top priority of the Obama administration for reinventing fisheries conservation through catch shares, industry management and product availability on the world market.

Read "Anti-catch share group stifled at NH fishery forum"

News analysis: 'Neutral' catch-share convener? Not at Mount Washington

BRETTON WOODS, N.H. — Conversion of the commonly held wealth of the seas into a tradeable, private commodity and then dividing the whole into "catch shares" was soft-sold with less than full disclosure to the management of New England's fisheries this week.

"We are a neutral convener, we take no position on catch shares," proclaimed Amy Schick Kenney, the co-leader of the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, at the start of a two-day workshop on catch shares organized by the New England Fishery Management Council at the Mount Washington Hotel Resort.

But if the forum itself — along with Kenney and its co-facilitators — professed neutrality, the moving force behind the forum and a co-sponsor was the Environmental Defense Fund, the global giant ENGO or environmental non-government organization which has been the signature champion of catch shares for many years.

The forum is a joint operation, merging resources of Duke University's Nicholas Institute of the Environment and the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.

Read "News analysis: 'Neutral' catch-share convener? Not at Mount Washington"

Federal fishing official looks to 'better times'

BRETTON WOODS, N.H. — An emissary from the federal administrator for fisheries came here yesterday with praise for the New England industry's struggle with — and cautious embrace of — market privatization or regulatory catch shares.

But Monica Medina deflected a direct question about the willingness of the Obama administration to help finance a buyout program that would fuel a radical downsizing of the fleet.

That is the intended result of converting the New England fishery from traditional to market principles. Most estimates here put the culling at 50 percent, more or less, and have raised flags of social and cultural dislocations with or without a buyout.

Read "Federal fishing official looks to 'better times' "

Reps raise red flags on catch shares

Converting fisheries to catch shares implies turning commonly held wealth into tradeable private harvesting quotas. And from witnesses to earlier examples on the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska yesterday came stories of safer, more rational and profitable fishing, albeit done by a much smaller group of boats.

But while the industries were strengthened in the transformation of public resources into tradeable abstract assets, communities have suffered, a point made by Ecotrust Canada in a written report last summer.

To Ed Backus, vice president of fisheries for Ecotrust, a West Coast nonprofit agency that innovates capital strategies for fishing communities, the distinction is between economic "efficiency" — a goal of catch share advocates — and economic "effectiveness" — a broader measure of the social impact — is everything.

Read "Reps raise red flags on catch shares"

N.H. conference zeroes in on fishing 'catch shares'

For the next two days, the 55 or so officials, appointed part-time legislators, scientists and staff who preside over the New England fishery will assemble in Bretton Woods, N.H., to examine in great detail the new fishing economic system known as catch shares — a system they have already approved for the groundfishery next year.

Otherwise known as individual tradeable quotas — or ITQs — fishermen's catch shares would convert the swimming common property of the nation's 200-mile exclusive economic zone into negotiable catching rights, thus converting public property into assignable private commodities. And the new system already approved by the New England Fishery Management Council has drawn growing concern from the fishing industry in Gloucester, throughout New England and in other fishing communities around the country and the world.

Read "N.H. conference zeroes in on fishing 'catch shares' "

Commentary: Too many catches with Catch Shares

NOAA's plan is a privatization boondoggle

You've got to hand it to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

While so many federal agencies seem to get nowhere fast, NOAA is working overtime to kill fishing as we know it. It is gutting the livelihoods of the nation's coastal communities in the process.

Read "Commentary: Too many catches with Catch Shares"

Nobel economist's work hailed by catch share foes

The Nobel Prize in economics bestowed upon Elinor Ostrom this week largely honors her work showing that commonly owned resources can be preserved and managed by stakeholders as well as or better than by governments or through privatization.

And many within the fishing community are noting her position as a strong statement against the "catch-share" management format being pushed for New England and other fisheries.

Read "Nobel economist's work hailed by catch share foes"

First Woman Recipient of Nobel Prize for Economics, A Key Player in Ending the Race for Fish

From Environmental Defesne Fund:

Elinor Ostrom, who shares this year’s Nobel Prize for Economics, laid much of the intellectual foundation for EDF’s current work with fishery cooperatives. Catch shares evolved from common property theory and empirical observations that, under certain conditions, resources such as fish, water, or pasture land tend to be overexploited when property rights are not clearly delineated. Ostrom’s research shows that resource users can develop cooperative methods to avoid overexploiting resources and dissipating weath through competition. 

Read "First Woman Recipient of Nobel Prize for Economics, A Key Player in Ending the Race for Fish"

Catch Shares Task Force Report

"We expect the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Catch Shares Task Force to release its recommendations for our federally managed ocean fisheries within a week."  From Pew Environment Group

Changes in store for fishermen

Changes due next year will put the squeeze on smaller fishermen as Federal Amendment 16 takes effect May 1. According to Dr. David Pierce, deputy director of the Mass. Division of Marine Fisheries, the system is shifting away from a days-at-sea approach toward individual and group catch limits for multi-species groundfish.

“The big question is who will be left standing?” Pierce told an audience at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies last Thursday night [Oct. 1] as part of their monthly lecture series. “Far less active fishermen than those standing and teetering now. And those left standing will likely be far better off than they are now. Many fishermen are to be sacrificed. For the greater good, that is the question.”

Read "Changes in store for fishermen"

Grouper fishing rules set to get tighter

Quotas worry small fishing operations

Many local fishermen and seafood industry insiders are crying foul over new federal regulations that will transform the way commercial fishermen catch grouper in the Gulf of Mexico.

The regulations, which were enacted by the National Marine Fisheries Service on Aug. 31, aim to eliminate the traditional race for fish that followed commercial season's opening. Instead, they will assign individual fishing quotas to commercial grouper fishermen starting in 2010.

Fisheries biologists and some environmentalists say the new rules are a necessary step in preserving populations of grouper and other fish species, which currently are being overfished in the Gulf.

But the regulations have met considerable criticism from fishermen who say the rules give an unfair advantage to large companies, and are designed to force smaller fishermen from the market.

Read "Grouper fishing rules set to get tighter"

Fish panel 'public' talks not for public

With experts being flown in from other regions, the New England Fishery Management Council is holding a two-day workshop on catch shares, the bitterly debated method of privatizing fish stocks and granting harvesting rights, later this month at the venerable and pricey Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods, N.H.

Patricia Fiorello, spokeswoman for the council, said the workshop was organized not primarily for the edification of the public or the industry, but to help the council — the federal legislative body for the New England fisheries — gain a clearer understanding of catch shares.

She said about 55 people have confirmed their plans to attend.

But one invitee, Vito Giacalone, the Gloucester entrepreneur and industry innovator for the Northeast Seafood Coalition, said the workshop seemed to be badly timed — falling after two years of debate leading to the creation of a catch share program for the groundfishery.

"Fire, ready, aim," he said.

Read "Fish panel 'public' talks not for public"

Grants Awarded to Help Fishermen Transition to New Management Plan

The grants will go to the Gulf of Maine to help fishermen transition to so-called "sector management."

The Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland has won two grants totaling $2.4 million to support the groundfish industry's transition to a new management system.  The new system, called sector management, provides groups of fishermen called sectors with quotas of fish, which each sector then decides how to divvy up.  It's intended as an alternative to the old system, based on the number of days fishermen are allowed to spend at sea. Read "Grants Awarded to Help Fishermen Transition to New Management Plan"

 

Lawsuit challenges commercial fishing quotas in Gulf

A Houston-based group of recreational fishermen has filed suit in federal court to force Gulf of Mexico fishery managers to drop a plan that grants exclusive rights to a portion of the annual catch of grouper and tilefish.

The Coastal Conservation Association, with 90,000 members nationwide, argues that the federal plan discriminates against sport anglers by giving a majority of the bounty to commercial fishermen.

The management strategy, known as “individual fishing quotas,” is intended to stop overfishing of the species by granting commercial outfits a portion of the harvest rather than having them compete to see who can catch the most during a specified period.

Read "Lawsuit challenges commercial fishing quotas in Gulf"

New rules may force scallop fisherman to old ways

The quota system should get underway next year. "Nobody in the general category wanted IFQs," said Wally Gray.

The huge disparity over quota allotment between big boats and the smaller general category boats has enraged Gray and most of his peers.

"The general category gets only 4.6 million pounds, and the big boat fleet has over 44 million pounds, and they will probably catch 60 million pounds, and they won't get shut down. The big boats go over their TAC (total allowable catch) ever year, and they never get shut down. Big boats run the (New England Fisheries Management) Council, and NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service) wants the least amount of boats. That's easy to manage," said Gray.

"They (the fishery powers-that-be) put me out of business. It's a shame. The scallop fishery could support both fleets (large and small boat). My boat is up for sale. If I buy the history (and get additional scallop quota) I need, I will have to spend $200,000, and I can't afford that," Gray said.

Read "New rules may force scallop fisherman to old ways"

 

Proposed rules could halve fleet

Of the 500 or so commercial boats working in the New England groundfishery today, only half of them — perhaps even fewer than that — will still be fishing in 2011, industry innovator Vito Giacalone predicted yesterday.

Giacalone made his projection a day after the New England Fishery Management Council, in a dramatic reversal of votes taken in June, agreed to tighten fishing constraints on the "common pool," that portion of the fleet that chooses to remain independent and unassociated with the "sectors" that will be served "catch shares."

Even among councilors who approved the pivotal motion 15-0 Wednesday night, late in the middle day of a three-day meeting in Plymouth, the consensus was that the common pool had been consigned to a common grave.

Read "Proposed rules could halve fleet"

Fishermen in pool face tough limits

PLYMOUTH — The New England Fishery Management Council last night authorized a belated crackdown on common pool fishing next year in an effort to prevent a free-for-all fishing derby.

The move strives to preserve the experiment in catch share sector fishing, scheduled to begin next May.

Many councilors voted to request draconian limits on common pool fishing with heavy hearts.

"We've crippled the common pool, we've cut their throats," said Rodney Avila, a councilor and fisherman from New Bedford.

Read "Fishermen in pool face tough limits"

Fishery council must insist on a halt to catch-share conversion

When members of the New England Fishery Management Council gather for a three-day meeting beginning today in Plymouth, they will be looking forward toward 2010, a potential landmark year for the region's fishery and fishermen.

But they should also be looking back on some of the issues that have surfaced since June, when — in a meeting in Portland — they gave their approval to converting the fishing regulatory system to one based on fishermen's "catch shares," a format being pushed hard by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco, by the Obama administration, and by Lubchenco's former colleagues and kindred spirits — the Pew Environmental Group, where the new NOAA chief was a Pew fellow, and the Environmental Defense Fund, where she formerly served on the board.

In line with the old adage "if I only knew then what I know now," the council should indeed revisit the entire catch share agenda before taking a full-fledged plunge into a system that — despite the PR muscle of NOAA and the environmental giants — continues to draw questions, concerns and downright cries of foul from Gloucester to British Columbia and literally around the world.

Read "Fishery council must insist on a halt to catch-share conversion"

Catch-share rejections cloud talks

A move is afoot within the federal fishery management system to increase the protection of cod and pollock from the majority of the groundfishing fleet that has rejected the chance to join a cooperative or sector and participate in the "catch share" experiment now underway here.

The movers behind the tightening of cod and pollock restrictions are described only as "members of the fishing industry" by Patricia Kurkul, the federal regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

By the Sept. 1 deadline for signing on and reserving a place in one of the sectors, only 723 of the eligible groundfish permitholders — or 49 percent — took a place in one of the 17 sectors, while 752 permitholders — 51 percent — opted to stay independent.

Read "Catch-share rejections cloud talks"

Gulf stewardship

Two years after a system of shares for commercial fishers was instituted in the Gulf, observers say stocks of the desirable fish are improving. The shares, distributed in 2007 at no cost to the anglers, were based on their 10 best consecutive annual catches from 1990 to 2004.

A more complete analysis, due out in October, is expected to confirm the trend in more detail. Andy Strelcheck, a biologist for the federal fisheries, told the Chronicle's Matthew Tresaugue that the share system has contributed to improvement of snapper stocks, as has the shrinking of the Gulf's shrimping industry following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Shrimpers often unintentionally trap other species, including snapper, in their nets, contributing to the decline.

All this rates as good news for Gulf Coast residents who enjoy snapper on the plate, and for the overall health of the Gulf ecosystem. But there is much more to do to create a sustainable supply, according to Holly Binns of the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit organization that closely tracks stewardship of the world's fisheries. We urge that her views be given a full hearing.

Binns' immediate concern is the greatly expanded volume of recreational fishing and the unknown toll it is taking on stocks of red snapper across the Gulf. She says that no one has a good handle on the exact number of recreational anglers across the Gulf, and that there's no effective way of managing the catch taken by these fishermen.

Read "Gulf stewardship"

Big companies give us ‘freedom’ to share-crop the ocean

The Tyee, an online magazine from British Columbia, has an article on privatizing the rivers in B.C. Sound crazy? Think privatizing all the ocean’s fish like NOAA wants to do. British Columbia started this fish privatization business, and countries we sometimes compare them with, like New Zealand, were right there with them. Turns out, someone has been pushing these ideas in the think tank, the Fraser Institute, and now the Campbell government is fully onboard.

‘The Family” at C Street in Washington has also been preaching “privatization” to the Washington elite for decades: their “trickle down fundamentalism” would have the rich have it all and then bestow blessings on the rest of us as good Keepers of the Faith, and as their mood swings on any one day. Part of this mentality is that these rich and powerful folk can do no wrong, as they have a ‘mandate’ to govern, and be Keepers of the Wealth as well. 

Read "Big companies give us ‘freedom’ to share-crop the ocean"

Kurkul admitted data errors in 2007

Two years before the National Marine Fisheries Service acknowledged widespread mistakes in catch histories it calculates that will determine groundfish earnings in the coming New England catch share/sector-based fishing system, the regional administrator admitted the data assembling system was a mess.

Read "Kurkul admitted data errors in 2007"

'Distorting' catch share criticism

In June, the Environmental Defense Fund considered a critique of privatized fisheries — a goal of EDF — by Ecotrust Canada and found that the two organizations generally agree.

It was a conclusion Ecotrust Canada did not share.

Read "'Distorting' catch share criticism"

Mid-Atlantic lawsuit targets NMFS' history of flawed data

Even before New England groundfishermen began howling last week, scallopers all along the East Coast and Mid-Atlantic fishing interests were protesting the federal government's continuing use of erroneous catch histories to establish fishermen's earning potential under a new regulatory format.

A multiple plaintiff lawsuit brought on behalf of small boat scallopers against the National Marine Fisheries Service in U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., alleges that "poor data quality is a fatal flaw in Amendment 11," which converts the lucrative scallop fishery to the catch share model next year.

Read "Mid-Atlantic lawsuit targets NMFS' history of flawed data"

Group supports trip limits, not catch shares

Dear Chairman Harris:

I represent a group of concerned commercial snapper-grouper fishermen and packing houses from Florida to North Carolina that have become aware of the efforts of Phil Conklin, Matt Ruby, and others to seek a "catch share" program for the fishery.

While we agree with their goal of extending the fishing year for all snapper and grouper by eliminating derby type fishing efforts that result in the quotas being met prematurely, and respect their efforts, we strongly disagree with a catch share approach.

 

Letter to NOAA Catch Share Task Force

Dear Ms Medina,

We are writing to thank you for chairing the Catch Shares Taskforce, and express our support for a comprehensive South Atlantic snapper grouper catch share. We are fishermen from Little River, SC and Murrells Inlet, SC and hold snapper grouper permit.

NOAA-pushed plan in stark contrast to course taken overseas

Federal oceans administrator Jane Lubchenco and the two environmental lobbies that were her stepping stones into the Obama administration promote privatizing the wild stocks of the sea into tradeable commodities — or fishermen's "catch shares" — as a scientifically proven antidote to what ails New England's and the nation's fisheries.

But the science comes from a narrow circle of fellow travelers in the orbits of the Pew Environment Group and the Environmental Defense Fund — ENGOs or environmental non-government organizations in which Lubchenco held pivotal positions before her appointment to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And from other quarters — Europe, British Columbia and the New England Fisheries Science Center — the implementation of the catch share regulatory system, set to take effect for Gloucester fishermen and the New England fishery next year, has sparked counter claims and a fierce debate about the effectiveness of the catch share format and their social and environmental impacts.

Read "NOAA-pushed plan in stark contrast to course taken overseas"

Selling snapper on Wall Street? Fishing as we know it is on the hook

Fishing as we have known it in our lifetimes is going to end unless, just like healthcare, we get going and do something about it soon.

The regulatory agencies that control our fisheries have not been willing so far to accept any scientific research that proves theirs incorrect. They conveniently call it “not best available data.”

The Panama City Boatmen Association has been working with these agencies for 20 years now (I've been a part of it for 3 1/2 years) and the news is only getting worse. 

Dr. Roy Crabtree, executive director of the Southeast Fishery Management Council, has made his point of view very clear.

As we have worked to improve the data collection process to show the huge increases of red snapper in the Gulf and presented research by well-known reputable scientists who are specialists in these fields, Dr. Crabtree stated to me and to others, "I don't care what the data says, you are not going to get any more fish” [via bag limit or season increase]. He has also stated that in his opinion, it is “better for the nation” to have fewer anglers, commercial, for-hire, or private, and let the few who are left turn a better profit. 

Read "Selling snapper on Wall Street? Fishing as we know it is on the hook"

West Coast fishermen embark on new wave of fishing

HARBOR, Ore. – The West Coast groundfish fleet has struggled to stay afloat during major cutbacks to reverse long-standing problems with overfishing and to protect the seafloor from damage caused by bottom trawling gear.

They are now embarking, after years of work and negotiation, on the latest system in fisheries management, known as "catch share." Fishermen are given their own individual shares of the total catch, personal responsibility for not catching overfished species, and a promise of better prices for the fish they do haul up.

"In the short term it might hurt people. In the long term I think it's the way to go," said Todd Whaley, 46, part-owner and skipper of the Miss Sarah, a 102-foot trawler that he rigs for groundfish, Pacific whiting, and crab, depending on the market.

Read "West Coast fishermen embark on new wave of fishing"

Fishing catch data flawed

NMFS records shortchange fishermen in new system shortchange in new system

Commercial fishermen all across the region — like Bill Doughty and Bill Amaru — are discovering serious errors in government issued catch histories for the 10-year period chosen to determine how much they can catch and earn in 2010 — the first year of "catch share" sector fishing.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has acknowledged problems with their calculations, but says it will not attempt to make corrections in time to affect the relative catch share grants to fishermen for the 2010 fishing season.

"I'm driving into Bangor, which is 140 miles from here (Harpswell, Maine) to buy myself an adding machine with paper," Bill Doughty said yesterday after checking the official report against his landings data, and confirming that he was not credited with about 40 percent of his catch one year and 25 percent of it in another.

Read "Fishing catch data flawed"

Grouper Giveaway

Feds approve IFQ program, effectively allocating 65 percent of all Gulf grouper catches to the commercial industry.

Just like that, Amendment 29 was passed under the guise of environmental stewardship, and now steamrolls ahead starting in 2010. Because of it, Gulf recreational anglers are banned from catching and keeping any more than 35 percent of the yearly grouper quota—leaving more than 65 percent of the Gulf grouper fishery to a select group of commercial harvesters.

“The magnitude of this giveaway is unprecedented,” said Ted Forsgren, CCA Florida Executive Director. “It is the largest public fishery giveaway in Florida’s history.”

Read "Grouper Giveaway"

NMFS chief seeks changes to 'common' pool limits

in a letter to the New England council last week, Patricia Kurkul, the Gloucester-based regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said "members of the fishing industry" recently contacted her about perceived flaws in the regulatory scheme written in June to govern the activities of the boats that eschew sectors with their catch shares.

The gist of the complaint is that the sectors scheduled to begin operating under catch shares next May have been awarded too little pollock, while the common poolers, under the continued effort controls based on limiting locations and days at sea, have been invited to catch pollock without the newer system's hard catch limits.

To a lesser extent, a similar imbalance in the regulation of cod was also cited.

Read "NMFS chief seeks changes to 'common' pool limits"

Fishermen to enroll in sectors Tuesday

Fishery regulators are inching forward with the development of new fishing cooperatives that will manage themselves and their catch in the 2010 groundfishing season.

Each cooperative, known officially as a sector, is made up of groundfish permit holders who are given an annual quota of groundfish to catch at their own pace and under their own rules.

An estimated 700 groundfish permits are expected to enroll in sectors, including about 100 permits tied to New Bedford fishing vessels. Regulators will have a better grasp of sector participation rates on Tuesday, when each sector must submit an operations plan to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service's Northeast Regional Office in Gloucester. 

Read "Fishermen to enroll in sectors Tuesday"

NOAA Announces New Catch Share Program in Gulf of Mexico

NOAA Fisheries Service will implement catch shares in the Gulf of Mexico commercial grouper and tilefish fisheries beginning January 1, 2010, in an effort to reduce overcapacity and improve profitability and working conditions for commercial fishermen of these species.

NOAA is acting based on a recommendation from the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to implement individual fishing quotas (IFQ), a type of catch share program, for these fish in the Gulf. This program does not alter the current allocations of fish between the commercial and recreational sectors, and it does not prevent the Gulf Council from requesting allocation changes in the future.

Read "NOAA Announces New Catch Share Program in Gulf of Mexico"

Fishery Councils Coordinate March to Catch Share Systems

The latest version of the 'asset commoditization' of USA fisheries is well underway with the New England Fisheries Management Council's approval of "Catch Share" systems to convert part of the common pool into sectors for the sake of non-fishing investors.

Catch shares back East are being handled through 'sectors' - community-based fishing cooperatives. These are not the familiar processor-linked-cooperatives we're used to in Alaska's collectivist oppression system, and the temporary rhetoric is that they are not (yet) individual fishing quotas. But we recognize this species-by-species march of economic warfare that moves relentlessly forward in the allocation jackboots of political racketeers until the boots-on-deck fishermen and our coastal communities fall into indentured servitude. New England fisheries are now well on the way, too.

Read "Fishery Councils Coordinate March to Catch Share Systems"

Catch Shares: Look Back at Wake Before Plowing Ahead

Terry Haines is a deckhand working on commercial fishing boats in Kodiak Alaska where he also serves as a member of the City Council. He currently works in a Catch Shares fishery (halibut/sablefish) and is a former participant in a second (Bering Sea crab). Here are some observations from that perspective on Catch Share management programs.

New Bedford draggers welcome President

A flotilla of five commercial fishing vessels sailed from New Bedford into Vineyard Haven Harbor Tuesday afternoon to draw attention to issues facing the fishing industry. The draggers, horns blaring, made two slow circles between the harbor breakwater and Tisbury Wharf before departing for Oak Bluffs on their way to offshore fishing grounds.

One of the vessels had a large banner hanging from the side that said, "Catch shares, corporate shares," a reference to a new regulatory framework known as catch shares. Another dragger carried a banner that said, "Fishing families are working families."

Read "New Bedford draggers welcome President"

Fishermen target catch shares in protest

Catch shares were on the minds of the New Bedford fishermen and on the signs on the sides of their boats that made a convenient detour into Vineyard Haven harbor yesterday in a dignified protest aimed at President Obama.

The five draggers were on their way to Georges Bank, but the president was on the golf course.

Read "Fishermen target catch shares in protest"

Transparency is Fish Management King

This is what I was talking about on Facebook: "RFA(Recreational Fishing Alliance) is recommending that the US Department of Commerce and individual governors in each of the coastal state coordinate a more transparent appointment process in the future,(to the federal Fishery Management Councils) thereby allowing potential candidates to be fully vetted within the fishing community as required under federal law.

This reaction was prompted by the appointment of four PEW connected folk to the Mid Atlantic FMC. This right there is why our fisheries are in such bad shape. Maybe these prople are God's gift to fisheries management, but I doubt it. Not only was the appointment process not transparent, (no opportunity for public vetting) but the PEW and NOAA agenda is not transparent. They can't and don't seem willing to justify their 'catch share' agenda.

Read "Transparency is Fish Management King"