Policy Goals in Fishery Management

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FISHERIES MANAGEMENT
ESM 259
Professor Osherenko
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• Open Access Harms the Sea, As Indicated By
• 1) accelerating loss of biodiversity (Norse 1993)
  and collapsing fisheries (Pauly et al. 2002)
• 2) sharply reduced abundance of species at higher
  trophic levels (Myers and Worm 2003)
• 3) widespread elimination of habitat-forming
  corals and sponges (Watling and Norse 1998)
• 4) proliferation of undesirable jellyfishes
  (Brodeur et al. 1999) and starfishes (Buttermore
  et al. 1994)
• 5) dramatic changes in biogeochemistry (Peterson
  and Estes 2001)

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"The world has problems which cannot be solved
by thinking the way we thought when we created
them." Attributed to Albert Einstein 1879-1955
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Conflicting Goals in Fishery Management?

• Promote economic development
• Increase fishing fleets and processing
• Increase efficiency
• Develop national fisheries in EEZs (Americanize
  fishing in the FCZ)
• Prevent depletion of fish stocks
• MSY (FCMA 1976)
• MEY Maximize economic yield
• OY Optimum Yield Magnuson Act 1996
• MSY
• Protect habitat
• Promote biological diversity
• Cultural concerns
• Prevent depopulation of small remote fishing
  communities
• Protect aboriginal communities dependent on fish
  and marine mammal resources (economic, cultural,
  legal concerns)

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Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 -
Goals

• Section 2 included two rather different goals
• to take immediate action to conserve and manage
  the fishery resources found off the coasts of the
  United States.
• Promote domestic commercial and recreational
  fishing

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Federal fishery management

• Applies in EEZ from 3-200 n. miles
• On high seas, NMFS regulates US fishing vessels
• 8 regional fishery management councils (RFMCs)
  under NMFS/DOC http//www.nmfs.noaa.gov/councils/
  
• PacificFMC http//www.pcouncil.org/
• North Pacific Fisheries Management Council
  http//www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/membership/council/
  council_membership.htm
• WPFMC http//www.wpcouncil.org/about.htm
• RFMCs prepare and amend fishery management plans
  for each fishery (fish stock by species or group
  of species)

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US Exclusive Economic Zone
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Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996(amended FCMA,
renamed it Magnuson-Stevens FCMA, 16 USC 1801 et
seq.)

• Redefined optimum yield to clarify that
  economic gains could not trump conservation of
  fisheries and that fishing targets must include
  consideration of the marine ecosystem.
• defined bycatch for the first time
• required NMFS to tally and minimize bycatch, and
• called for identification and protection of
  essential fish habitat (EFH)
• NMFS 2002 regs on habitat areas of particular
  concern

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Optimum yield (MSFCMA sec. 1802(21)

• OYthe amount of fish which--
• Will provide the greatest overall benefit to the
  Nation, particularly with respect to food
  production and recreational opportunities and
  taking into account the protection of marine
  ecosystems
• Is prescribed as such on the basis of the maximum
  sustainable yield from the fishery, as reduced by
  any relevant economic, social, or ecological
  factor and
• In the case of an overfished fishery, provides
  for rebuilding to a level consistent with
  producing the maximum sustainable yield in such
  fishery.

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Definition of subsidy

• A government policy that alters market risks,
  rewards, and costs in ways that favor certain
  activities or groups (Roodman 1996)
• Effects of subsidies
• Distort the way markets operate allowing some
  groups to benefit over others
• Promote overexploitation of natural resources
  (fish, forests, water, air.)

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5 types of subsidies

• Direct funding or lower costs for shipbuilding,
  fish ports, fish processing
• Subsidies to capital investment, e.g. low
  interest loans, loan guarantees, and tax
  concessions on investments
• Low or no charge for use of natural resource
• Reductions in other production costs, e.g. fuel
  tax exemptions
• Direct income support (discourages fishermen from
  leaving a fishery permanently)

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Management Tools

• Rules (formal and informal)
• Regulation of take
• Regulation of production
• Privatization ITQs, IFQs, CDQs (property
  rights)
• Place based reserves and conservation zones
  (MPAs, Marine Reserves, ocean zoning)
• Voluntary standards and guidelines
• Reduce consumer demand
• Education, certification, labeling

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Regulation of production

• Control of fishing effort
• California regulates by
• seasons (openings and closings of specific
  fisheries)
• gear restrictions
• Other types of regulation
• Size of fleet
• Maximum engine capacity
• Schedules for port exit and entry (limits on
  fishing days, compulsory rest periods, etc.)
• Vessel buy back and destruction
• Termination of subsidies
• Harvest restrictions
• Minimum (or maximum) size limits
• Bag limits

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Institutional arrangements

• Common property - bundle of rights belongs to a
  group of people
• communal property (held by an identifiable
  community of users with rights to exclude others)
• 2) Private property - bundle of rights belongs to
  identifiable owner (individual or legal person
  like a corporation)
• 3) Public property - bundle of rights belongs to
  the government or the state
•  
• 4) Open access - In effect, the bundles are more
  or less empty in the sense that anything goes,
  but note that truly empty sets are pretty rare.
  Absence of well-defined use rights.
•  

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Creating Property rights in fisheries

• Property rights are a bundle of rights, composed
  of  
• 1) Disposition rights - right to dispose of land,
  or other items that can be construed as property,
  in whatever manner desired (transfer, sell,
  donate, etc.)
• 2) Possessory rights - right to own the property
  regardless of use and to reap benefits from uses
  others may make of the property
• 3) Use rights - right to use the property as
  desired
• 4) Exclusion rights - right to exclude others as
  desired 

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Individual Transferable/Fishing Quotas (ITQs and
IFQs)

• Entitle individual fishermen (or more rarely a
  group) to take a of annual total allowable
  catch (TAC) from a particular stock.
• A form of privatizing the fishery (the owner
  obtains a right to harvest a part of the annual
  yield of a fishery)
• Not a property right to the fish stocks
  themselves
• Creates a market in quotas
• Problems arise in initial allocation (by lottery,
  eligibility established by prior fishing success,
  other mechanism)

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Criteria for limited access systems under MSFCMA,
16 U.S.C. sec 1853(b)(6)

• Limited access systems (such as IFQs) in FMPs
  must take into account
• Present participation in the fishery,
• Historical fishing practices in, and dependence
  on, the fishery
• The economics of the fishery,
• The capability of fishing vessels used in the
  fishery to engage in other fisheries,
• The cultural and social framework relevant to the
  fishery, and
• Any other relevant considerations.

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What property rights does the ITQ holder obtain?

• Use?
• Disposition?
• Exclusionary?
• Possessory?

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Winners and losers with ITQs

• Opposed by family-based, artisanal fishing
  interests
• Produces job losses and changes in social
  structures
• Raises issues of equity in initial allocation
  (some systems use set asides for crew)
• Favors consolidation or corporatization of fleet
• Encourages high grading
• Doesnt address by-catch

• Favored by those with larger capital investments
  in boats and processing facilities
• High initial cost to create system and for
  monitoring and enforcement
• Promotes economic efficiency
• Removes race for fish
• Increases safety of crew
• Lengthens season
• Decreases ghost fishing

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Other rights options

• Customary, communal or territorial use rights
• Held by group or community
• Cannot be traded outside the community
• Examples Pacific island states, Japan, CDQs in
  Alaska
• Application in coastal fisheries, not high seas

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http//www.seaweb.org/resources/sac/
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International Fisheries Management

• UNCLOS
• UN FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)
  Committee on Fisheries over 180 FAO member
  nations regulates through treaties and
  recommendations
• FAO Compliance Agreement (in force in 2003)
• Fish Stocks Agreement (came into force in 2001)
• Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (1995)
• International Plans of Action
• Multi-national regional fisheries management
  organizations, e.g. ICCAT

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• An Alternative Zoning
• A place-based ecosystem management system
• that reduces conflict, uncertainty and costs by
  separating incompatible uses and specifying how
  particular areas may be used

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Whats So Good About Zoning?

• It dramatically reduces the pernicious effects of
  open-access competition
• It addresses the seas heterogeneity

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