Oceans of Abundance: Recommendations

Posted: 11-Nov-2008; Updated: 14-Dec-2009

The President and Congress can help create full-time jobs, stimulate economic growth and restore the oceans.

President-elect Obama should:

1. Unleash innovation for economic and ecosystem renewal in the oceans:

• Ensure that:
  • All federal fishery management plans are evaluated for catch shares by 2012.
  • At least 50 percent of federal fishery management plans feature catch share management by 2016.
  • The portfolio for transition to catch shares includes a range of fisheries based on feasibility as well as economic, social, and biological needs.
• Establish performance standards for fisheries management by requiring plans to consider catch shares and ensuring that all fisheries deliver results comparable to well-designed catch share programs, including:
  • Compliance with catch limits,
  • Reduced bycatch,
  • Improved fisheries information, and
  • Enhanced economics and safety.
• Work with Congress to make catch shares a priority in the first 100 days.
• Partner with state and regional fishery managers by providing incentives and resources to design and implement catch shares in federal and state waters.
• Place a high priority on improving the science of setting catch limits, including enhancing capacity at NOAA and universities, and establishing ecosystem-based research, monitoring, and policy frameworks at appropriate spatial scales.
• Promote the entrepreneurial spirit of fishing families and vibrant coastal communities through public-private partnerships and assistance in the transition to sustainable fishing.
• Create experiments that are designed to increase the productivity of fisheries by combining area-based catch shares with marine protected areas (including no-take reserves as needed). These projects should be based on the best available science, and designed in consultation with states and local stakeholders.
• Educate stakeholders on the performance of catch shares and the efficacy of combined catch share-marine protected area experiments.

2. Appoint committed leaders for the Department of Commerce and regional fishery management councils who will drive economic and ecosystem renewal in the oceans.

3. Lead globally by working with other nations and within international regulatory bodies to which the U.S. is party to consider catch share management.

• Develop catch shares plans for Regional Fishery Management Organizations.
• Hold a high-level meeting of Arctic nations in 2009 to negotiate a new Arctic Framework Convention by the end of 2012 that includes catch shares and marine protected areas (including no-take reserves as needed).
• Strongly advocate for Senate ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty.

The United States Congress Should:

1. Ease bottlenecks of economic and ecosystem renewal of the oceans:

• Pass legislation that:
  • Requires all fishery management plans to consider catch shares by 2012.
  • Ensures that all fisheries deliver results comparable to well-designed catch share programs, including:
    • Compliance with catch limits
    • Reduced bycatch,
    • Improved fisheries information, and
    • Enhanced economic performance and safety.
  • Eliminates regional disincentives to catch shares.
  • Enhances coordination among federal, interstate, and state decision-makers to ensure an ecosystem-based framework for implementing catch shares.
• Accelerate scientific understanding by funding experimental programs testing the efficacy of area-based catch shares in combination with marine protected areas and no-take reserves as needed, and provide recommendations for future use and funding.

2. Hold agencies accountable:

• Approve and support decision-makers who are committed to economic and ecosystem renewal in the oceans.
• Hold oversight hearings during the first 100 days in order to give the new Administration an opportunity to present its fisheries goals.
• Conduct oversight of the Department of Commerce, Department of State and other relevant agencies.

3. Accelerate the transition to sustainable and profitable fisheries:

• Increase incentives and resources to design and implement catch shares.
• Establish an oceans trust fund that provides assistance in the transition to catch shares to organizations and communities through low-interest loans and grants.