Appendices to catch share design manual

Appendix A: Monitoring and data collection approaches [PDF]

Monitoring of catch and landings provides fishery managers with vital information for science, enforcement and catch accounting and is a key component of effective fisheries management.

There are a variety of data collection and monitoring approaches that have been successfully used for managing fisheries and choosing the appropriate method or methods will help ensure the effectiveness of a catch share program.

This Appendix provides a basic overview of different monitoring approaches, including a discussion of their pros and cons, as well as commonly used combinations based on different gear types.

Appendix B: Managing without a catch limit [PDF]

As stated in the Introduction, this Design Manual is focused only on catch share programs that set clear, appropriate limits on catch. There are programs worldwide that provide some amount of secure, dedicated access to fish resources but do not include a catch limit. Namely, area-based approaches without a catch limit, in which an individual or group is allocated secure access to an area but no catch limit is defined, and tradable effort-based approaches in which there is a cap on effort but not on catch.

The effectiveness of these approaches is less clear than of catch shares with a catch limit, due to limited experience with these programs and/or a lack of empirical research. While they may be viable approaches in some cases, they are outside the scope of this Design Manual and likely require additional research to understand under what conditions they work well. Furthermore, it is likely that these approaches will require different design elements than what is discussed in this Design Manual.

Appendix C: Fisheries that are no longer managed via catch shares [PDF]

Examples of catch share programs that have ceased operation are rare. Catch shares management is superior to other approaches in meeting a variety of fishery goals, as discussed throughout the Design Manual. However, there are at least two documented cases of fisheries that were once managed via catch shares, but no longer are. The primary reason for their failure seems to be external factors that were not sufficiently addressed.

Appendix D: Assessment methods for data-poor stocks [PDF]

Recent changes to federal law mandate that Fishery Management Councils implement annual catch limits for all United States stocks by 2011 (NOAA 2010). In order to establish catch limits and determine appropriate managerial actions however, stock assessments must first be conducted. For fisheries with little or no data, this is a significant challenge as traditional stock assessments are costly and demand large quantities of time and information. Fortunately there are tools available to help assess data-poor fisheries using easily gathered data and/or data already on hand.