Danish pelagic and demersal ITQ programs

Special design features

The Danish Pelagic and Demersal Individual Transferable Quota Programs (ITQ Programs) include a number of thoughtful design decisions in order to meet the program’s goals, including promoting economic growth in the fisheries sector by balancing the capacity of the fishing fleet with the available resource, and addressing social goals.

Important features of the catch share program include quota set-asides for small vessels and new entrants; Fishpools, which promote cooperation and coordination among participants; and programs to reduce discards. Denmark’s catch share programs demonstrate how innovative design features can be used to promote social goals within a system introduced for economic and biological reasons.

Synopsis

In 2003, the Danish government introduced an ITQ Program for the Danish herring (Clupea harengus) fishery. In 2007, the system was extended to cover additional pelagic species including mackerel (Scomber scombrus), horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus), sprat (Sprattus sprattus), pout (Trisopterus esmarki), sandeel (Ammodytes marinus) and blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou). At the same time, managers introduced an ITQ Program for the Danish demersal fisheries.

The major Danish fisheries occur in the North Sea, the Skagerrak, the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea. In 2009, there were over 2,800 Danish commercial fishing vessels and in 2007 over 2,500 people employed in fish harvesting (Danish Directorate of Fisheries, 2009). The pelagic and demersal fisheries are comprised of a variety of vessels, most of which fish in many locations and use multiple gear types.

Vessels vary in size, with the largest vessels operating in the pelagic fishery and the industrial reduction fisheries for sprat, sandeel, pout and blue whiting. The smallest vessels are skiffs targeting nearshore demersal species with gillnets. In 2007, the value of Danish landings was over $450 million, 90% of which were under catch share programs (55% in the ITQ-Pelagic Program and 35% in ITQ-Demersal Program) (MRAG et al., 2009).

The European Union (EU) is responsible for setting catch limits that are allocated to member states according to a given percentage to maintain what is known as “Relative Stability”. The Danish Directorate of Fisheries manages national fisheries.